So as far as I understand, films submitted to the Cannes film festival must have a theatrical release in France, and then French law forbids streaming for 36 months after the theatrical release.
I don't see why Netflix doesn't just submit a few of its own movies to Cannes, then does a token theatrical release in one cinema in France somewhere (to abide by the letter of the law), then prominently displays the movie in the streaming catalog. But when a French person selects the movie, it just says: "This movie is not available before $long_away_date because of $stupid_french_law. By the way, this is the phone number of your representative. Just saying."
I don't see why Netflix doesn't just submit a few of its own movies to Cannes, then does a token theatrical release in one cinema in France somewhere (to abide by the letter of the law), then prominently displays the movie in the streaming catalog. But when a French person selects the movie, it just says: "This movie is not available before $long_away_date because of $stupid_french_law. By the way, this is the phone number of your representative. Just saying."