Expansion into lucrative Luxembourg is also bringing wins for the local film industry. "Sawah", the first fully Luxembourg-made film to be featured on an international streaming platform went live on Netflix at the end of spring.

“It was at number 1 or 2 in 30 countries during the first week,” director Ady El Assal said. And it opened doors for him with Netflix. “Right now, I’m shooting a series for them in Belgium. I’m so happy. After all those years of struggling, now I can choose the projects I want.”

El Assal is accustomed to going out on a limb. He broke with tradition when, in 2012, he released his first feature, "Les Gars", in France via video on demand. “I wanted people to see my film and it was very successful. I made some money but didn’t break even,” he said.

After four years of trying with Netflix, El Assal landed a pitch at the Berlin film festival in February, shortly before lockdown, and after "Sawah" had a cinema run.

So, why don’t more local filmmakers take the streaming route? “They like to see their films in cinemas, that’s true for every filmmaker,” El Assal suggests.

Luxembourg TV series producers have already jumped on the bandwagon with some success. Netflix launched the second season of Iris Productions’ gripping thriller "Bad Banks" in November 2020.

Streaming platforms have an interest to accept more local content--the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive requests that at least 30% of content streamed in Europe is composed of European works. Financial help for filmmakers could follow. In late 2020, prominent filmmakers such as Pedro Almodóvar were calling for streaming platforms to invest 25% of European turnover in local production companies.

This article was originally published in the January 2021 edition of Delano Magazine