SPIELBERG NOT A FAN OF NETFLIX
Posted: 050119

Steven Spielberg has been quite vocal about the rise of streaming services and the effect they have on the movie industry and the awards race. He worries that studios are placing too much of an emphasis on big budget films and franchises which makes smaller films go streaming in order to get an audience. Spielberg believes that films run on streaming are TV movies since some never run in more than a few theaters and with runs of one week. And he is going to make his case to the Academy Board of Governors to stop Netflix films from getting Oscar nominations. Netflix isn’t happy with that and issued a statement that they love movies and are just making it possible for more people to see films. But they are missing his basic point-films need to be seen in theaters and runs have to be more than one week and not just in select cities just to get Oscar nominations. A film like Roma only played in 600 screens for a short run. Martin Scorsese wants his Netflix film The Irishman to be in theaters first and then on the service. Amazon had their films play in theaters for as long as a theater wanted it before it ran on Amazon Prime. Spielberg has a lot of clout so it remains to be seen if he is going to get his way and have streaming films considered for Emmys and not Oscars. The Cannes Film Festival has made it clear that Netflix films will not be considered for showings there.