According to Variety, streaming giant Netflix has won its appeal blocking charges that accused them of sexualizing children in its controversial 2020 French film ‘Cuties.’
RELATED: Netflix Apologizes For ‘Cuties’ Film Poster Amid Outrage Over Sexualizing Children
Back in August 2020, we first shared that Netflix had come under fire, facing outrage and claims that they were sexualizing children in its film about children dancers. Despite winning the World Cinema Dramatic Directing Award at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, the film was met with tons of backlash.
The project follows an 11-year-old girl named Amy who joins a group of “twerkers” at school named ‘The Cuties.’ Although Amy tries to explore her “femininity” through dance, she has to face the fact that her decisions are upsetting her mother and her core values. At the time, Deadline said the film was listed at 82% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, noting that critics generally praised the project for its handling of sensitive topics.
RELATED: ‘Cuties’ Director Reveals Netflix Poster Controversy Resulted In Death Threats
However, several people on social media did not agree and called the film out for being “distasteful, inappropriate, and just wrong.” Some users even accused Netflix of “sexualizing little girls,” which the company fired back against and denied.
While responding to the criticism online calling out the film’s original poster, Netflix released a statement that read, “We’re deeply sorry for the inappropriate artwork that we used for Mignonnes/Cuties. It was not OK, nor was it representative of this French film which won an award at Sundance. We’ve now updated the pictures and description.” Despite the drama, the film was still set to air on September 9, 2020.
RELATED: Netflix Defends ‘Cuties’ Film After Being Called Out For Sexualizing Children
Also speaking out on the drama was ‘Cuties‘ director Maïmouna Doucouré who revealed that after the original poster was released, she received multiple death threats. She explained, “I received numerous attacks on my character from people who had not seen the film, who thought I was actually making a film that was apologetic about hypersexualization of children. I also received numerous death threats.”
She added, “Things happened fairly quickly because, after the delays [due to the pandemic], I was completely concentrating on the film’s release in France. I discovered the poster as the same time as the American public. My reaction? It was a strange experience. I hadn’t seen the poster until after I started getting all these reactions on social media, direct messages from people, and attacks on me. I didn’t understand what was going on. That was when I went and saw what the poster looked like.”
RELATED: Netflix Indicted In Texas Over Controversial Show ‘Cuties’
After the film aired on Netflix in September, the backlash resurfaced, causing Netflix to defend itself against “sexualizing” claims. A month after that, in October, the streaming giant was then indicted in Texas over the controversial show. Lucas Babin, the elected D.A. in Tyler County, Texas, led the case.
A grand jury in Texas said that Netflix was well aware of the film’s contents and still continued to promote “visual material which depicts the lewd exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a clothed or partially clothed child” under the age of 18. Netflix was served with a summons by Texas Rangers on October 1 and the co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos were named and charged with a State felony.
Days later, Sarandos defended his platform’s controversial film and said that the film performed better and was better understood overseas versus in North America.
He explained, “It’s a little surprising in 2020 America that we’re having a discussion about censoring storytelling. It’s a film that is very misunderstood with some audiences, uniquely within the United States. The film speaks for itself. It’s a very personal coming of age film, it’s the director’s story and the film has obviously played very well at Sundmotance without any of this controversy and played in theaters throughout Europe without any of this controversy.”
After being indicted in Texas in October 2020 on child pornography charges, Netflix has now won in court. On Monday (December 18), the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas ruled 3-0, upholding a lower court injunction that paused everything, indefinitely, for the prosecution.
According to Variety, Netflix won its battle after taking the case to federal court, arguing that Tyler, Texas D.A. Lucas Babin was pursuing the case in bad faith. The streaming giant essentially won as its film hadn’t contained any sexual scenes nor displayed the underaged actors performing any provocative dance routines while clothed.
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The post Netflix Wins Appeal Blocking Charges Accusing Them Of Sexualizing Children In ‘Cuties’ Film appeared first on Hollywood Unlocked .
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