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Steven Spielberg doesn’t think ‘TV movies’ deserve Oscars
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg thinks Netflix movies are “TV movies,” and shouldn’t be considered for the Oscars.
Since Netflix began distributing movies, the industry has been rife with contention about whether such films deserve the same recognition as traditional, theatrically-released films, particularly when it comes to the Academy Awards.
“Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie. You certainly, if it’s a good show, deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar. I don’t believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theatres for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination,” reasons Spielberg.
Netflix just started gaining awards recognition for films like Dee Rees’ Mudbound, which received a one-week theatrical release in Los Angeles and New York, and Ava DuVernay’s 13th, which did not release in theatres and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2016 Academy Awards.
The controversy has also spread to question the place of Netflix films at festivals, with the premiere of Okja at the Cannes Film Festival being met with boos, as the Netflix logo flashed on the screen. After this, Cannes established a rule that any films selected for competition must also commit to a theatrical distribution. In a recent interview, Cannes director Thierry Fremaux said that “we will eventually come up with a good agreement because in order for a film to become part of history, it must go through theatres, box-office, the critics, the passion of cinephiles, awards campaigns, books, directories, filmographies. All this is part of a tradition on which the history of film is based.”
I don’t believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theatres for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination. STEVEN SPIELBERG, FILMMAKER