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Looks like Netflix’s critically acclaimed film Roma almost winning an Academy Award rubbed a Hollywood legend the wrong way and now he’s looking to stop films that don’t debut in movie theaters from ever walking away with the gold.
IndieWire is reporting that film icon Steven Spielberg is planning on pushing some new Oscar award rules which keeps films that debut on streaming platforms like Netflix out of Academy Award consideration. He can hate all he wants but Netflix did change the game in many ways from letting people rent movies by mail to streaming content to backing original series and films that we know and love today.
But regardless of how successful Netflix has been over the years, Spielberg doesn’t feel anything they produce should be recognized by the Academy being that they do it for TV, and not theaters.
“Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation,” said an Amblin spokesperson. “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.”
Spielberg currently serves as the Academy Governor for the directors branch so there’s a chance that this could actually happen. But the idea is being met with resistance from some of his peers including Ava DuVernay who took to Twitter and called on the Academy to listen to directors who don’t agree with Spielberg’s sentiment.
https://twitter.com/ava/status/1101575874392907777
Evil Dead star Bruce Campbell also chimed in on the subject throwing his support behind Netflix produced films staying in Oscar contention.
We don’t know if these kind of reactions will sway Steven Spielberg to let Netflix films live at the Academy Awards but don’t be surprised if films that debut on streaming platforms quietly stop being nominated at the Oscars.
