Steven Speilberg Vs. Netflix

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"The success of Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma at this year’s Oscars has royally pissed off Steven Spielberg, so much so he’s reportedly doubling down on banning streaming films from awards contention once and for all. Per Indiewire, a Spielberg vs. Netflix battle will be reaching its peak at next week’s Board of Governors meeting at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, where the director — who’s a board member of the directing branch — is planning to “propose rule changes” that would specifically prevent Netflix, and other streaming outlets such as Amazon and Hulu, from qualifying for Oscars contention. Spielberg had previously discussed his disgust at Netflix campaigning for Oscars, equating its film slate to mere television movies."

I'm personally not against Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu movies getting nominated for Oscars and other major movie awards, but Steven Speilberg is apparently infuriated.


Links to the report:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/osc...SGe?li=BBnbfcL

https://www.indiewire.com/2019/02/st...rs-1202047846/
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He's just being a whiny bitch. Ignore him.
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Originally Posted by Iroquois
To be fair, you have to have a fairly high IQ to understand MovieForums.com.



We've gone on holiday by mistake
Next he'll want to ban internet shopping. Sorry Steven but the world's a changing.
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I mean, how good is Roma? Steven doesn't seem to think it's anything beyond a tv movie calibre, if he did - he'd probably be lobbying for the rules to better suit companies like Netflix, right?

Kind of a loud objection, and - I wonder how much the journalism has spun of this to maybe make it seem more of something than it really is?



I personally disliked Roma and thought it was criminally overrated. But aside from that, to ban all movies coming from streaming services from Oscar contention is too extreme and something I do not agree with. Speilberg needs to accept the current state of film with Netflix and other streaming services producing legitimate movies, and not just "TV movies".



Spielberg's request to deny movies made by streaming services from being eligible for an Oscar...strikes me as not being about artistry, but about a billion dollar producer (ie: Spielberg) being afraid of losing some of his potential future movie $$$ to the big streaming companies.



It's a valuable discussion to have. Less time spent angrily saying this is a case of OLD MAN YELLING AT CLOUDS or whatever would probably be beneficial. Obviously times are changing and I don't think any decisions should be set in stone right away. My personal take is that cinema is cinema, regardless of the size of the screen. However, I don't place a whole lot of personal importance on the Oscars anymore, so I don't really have a fight in this battle. Guess I'm just posting because I saw a lot of tweets basically insulting Spielberg, saying he's out of touch etc., and I think that's really counterproductive. I guess it's fitting of our times to just insult anyone you disagree with, but whatever.



Well his "purist" public views on film were a loud mistake in the wrong direction - ultimately shutting himself out of the potential action.

Oof.

I've reason to believe that he probably thinks he's "saving cinema" - but it's also not exactly letting anything else take the form of cinema and change (for better or worse). I don't have much faith in the oscars myself only because I feel the quality of films has taken a really strange turn. Seems to be equal comedy relief/shick/bad taste that often dilutes any potential comic timing or relateable drama on levels outside of surface talk.



At some point last year I thought the whole planet was watching Birdbox at the same time, that kind of mass controlling power eventually leads to Skynet



I personally disliked Roma and thought it was criminally overrated. But aside from that, to ban all movies coming from streaming serves from Oscar contention is too extreme and something I do not agree with. Speilberg needs to accept the current state of film with Netflix and other streaming services producing legitimate movies, and not just "TV movies".

Agree with all of this.


I pay a monthly subscription to the site Mubi which gives a film a day which lasts a month (so 30 at any given time) and this helps me watch all sorts of films, some hard to find artistic works, some classics, some new releases. What they've done now is added a feature called "Mubi Go" at no extra cost, which gives users a free cinema ticket every week for a new film in selected cinemas. Unfortunately for me not many of the films get shown at my local eligible cinema (although The Favourite was one of those included that was available), but at no extra cost I think it's a great idea to give people a greater balance between the small screen and cinema.


Maybe Netflix could add something similar, where at a small extra cost, people can go and see some of their new releases at participating cinema. Off the top of my head I would have been happy to pay that and to have gone and seen Roma, Buster Scruggs, Annihilation and Hold the Dark from there last year.
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I agree with Spielberg tbh.
No worldwide cinematic release? Shouldn't be eligible. Done and dusted.
There's been plenty of movies in the past that were snubbed at the Oscars even though they had eligible cinema releases.


Including TV movies, pay-per-view and streaming in the awards, puts a spanner in the works for any and all TV movies released in the past.
The Oscars winners of yesteryear, their awards now mean absolutely nothing.



It's my impression that Spielberg has for years tried to insure that theatrical releases continue, and to encourage people to see moves at the theater. To that end he's probably trying to make sure that theaters continue to have a large selection of movies made for that purpose.

Spielberg is fabulously wealthy. If he never did another minute's work, he'd have more money than he knew what to do with for the rest of his life. Therefore it's not likely that his concerns regarding the integrity of theatrical films are financial.

He also has a point about the Emmy awards celebrating TV/small screen productions. The Oscars were always for theatrical releases. Should we now have a theatrical release vying for an Emmy if it was shown on TV? I don't think so.

The public seems to be gradually moving away from seeing films at the theater, due to the plethora of methods to view movies at home. So the days of the cinematic theater experience may be numbered. But I hate to see that potential accelerated.

~Doc



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
I also think that theatrical releases should continue and by the Oscars nominated straight to streaming movies, they are kind of selling out by doing that. I mean back in VHS and DVD rental days, Oscars never nominated movies that went straight to video, so why start now?

Plus if these movies were so good to win an Oscar, then why didn't distributors want to get theatrical releases? It seems like Netflix is cheap on their own products that way.



This might just do nobody any good.
Plus if these movies were so good to win an Oscar, then why didn't distributors want to get theatrical releases? It seems like Netflix is cheap on their own products that way.
It’s hard to find a wide enough audience for a Spanish languaged black and white period piece or an anthology of increasingly nihilistic western fables.

Netflix will take you up on your oddities. Roma got a major awards campaign and they’re putting in the work for Scorsese’s The Irishman* too (and a few other hopefuls due out this year.)

*has Marty said anything about his buddy’s oppositions?



Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Well that doesn't stop other non-mainstream type movies from being released though. The Artist (2011) is a black and white period piece and that went to theaters. I still think distributors should give it a chance. Netflix seems to have this attitude that they will take 'sloppy seconds', and if they see their products they are buying that way, they will not be given as big of chances as more faithful distribution companies.



Ostensibly, the Oscars are about rewarding excellence in film - right? (It's really about politics and popularity, but it's supposed to be about rewarding excellence.) So why does it matter who made the film and where it was shown?