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- Director Steven Spielberg will lead a campaign to change Oscars rules to limit streaming services like Netflix from competing.
- Netflix responded to Spielberg’s criticism on Twitter on Sunday: "We love cinema."
- Spielberg’s war on streaming represents a larger debate about Netflix at the Oscars that loomed over this year’s awards season.
Steven Spielberg doesn’t want Netflix anywhere near the Oscars.
The veteran filmmaker will lead a campaign to change Oscars rules to limit streaming services like Netflix competing, according to Indiewire. Spielberg, the governor representing the director’s branch in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the group that votes on the Oscars), is expected to propose the changes at the Academy’s Board of Governors meeting next month.
"Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation," a spokesperson for Spielberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, told Indiewire. "He’ll be happy if the others will join [his campaign] when that comes up [at the Academy Board of Governors meeting]. He will see what happens."
"Awards rules discussions are ongoing with the branches," the Academy said in a statement to Indiewire. "And the Board will likely consider the topic at the April meeting."
Netflix responded to Spielberg’s criticism on Twitter on Sunday.
The full quote is below:
"We love cinema. Here are some things we also love:
-Access for people who can’t always afford, or live in towns without, theaters
-Letting everyone, everywhere enjoy releases at the same time
-Giving filmmakers more ways to share art
These things are not mutually exclusive."
Spielberg has been an opponent to Netflix’s presence at the Oscars for some time, and feels strongly that the streaming giant should compete solely for Emmys. "Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie," he said in an interview with ITV News last year.
Last month, Spielberg took more jabs at streaming at the Cinema Audio Society Awards.
"I hope all of us really continue to believe that the greatest contributions we can make as filmmakers is to give audiences the motion picture theatrical experience," he said. "I’m a firm believer that movie theaters need to be around forever."
He continued: "I love television. I love the opportunity. Some of the greatest writing being done today is for television, some of the best directing for television, some of the best performances [are] on television today. The sound is better in homes more than it ever has been in history but there’s nothing like going to a big dark theater with people you’ve never met before and having the experience wash over you. That’s something we all truly believe in."
Netflix
Spielberg’s comments represent a larger debate about Netflix as part of the Oscars conversation.
The industry disruptor has faced pushback throughout Hollywood and the film industry, most notably when it pulled out of the Cannes Film Festival last year after a rule change banned any films without a theatrical distribution in France.
Netflix went to great lengths this awards season to sway the debate in its favor, and pushed hard for Alfonso Cuarón’s "Roma" in the best picture race. For the first time, Netflix gave the movie an exclusive theatrical release before it made it available to stream (it usually releases its content in theaters and on streaming at the same time). It also reportedly spent at least $20 million on its Oscar campaign, according to The New York Times.
"Roma" ultimately lost best picture to the controversial "Green Book," but the movie still won three awards for best director (Cuarón), best cinematography, and best foreign language film. Netflix also won the prize for best documentary short for "Period. End of Sentence." The streamer was nominated for a total 15 Oscars this year.
Some of the concerns film studios raised about Netflix include how much it spent on the campaign, how long "Roma" was a theatrical exclusive (just three weeks), and that Netflix doesn’t report box office sales, according to Indiewire.
Still, its nominations and wins show that the Oscars are more open to Netflix than they would have been even a few years ago.
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See Also:
- All 91 Oscar best-picture winners, ranked from worst to best by movie critics
- The 42 actors who have won multiple Oscars, ranked by who has won the most
- This year proved the Oscars have started to embrace Marvel and Netflix, even though ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Roma’ lost best picture
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Source: Business Insider – tclark@businessinsider.com (Travis Clark)