Steven Spielberg Will Try To Boot Netflix From Oscars At Academy Meeting

Steven Spielberg

Righto, so it appears Steven Spielberg is rather displeased with the Academy Awards after Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma – distributed by Netflix – took home three Oscars, including Best Director. In fact, according to reports, Spielberg will flag this at the Board of Governors at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (the post-Oscars meeting).

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This is hardly the first time Spielberg has expressed his distaste for Netflix films – ‘TV movies’. In an interview with ITV News, Spielberg said streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are a “challenge to cinema” because it takes eyeballs away from the cinemas.

Spielberg acknowledged that at the moment, studios are going for the big money-makers AKA the superhero movies so “smaller films the studios used to make routinely are now going to Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix.”

“Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie. The good show deserves an Emmy, but not an Oscar,” he added.

Which brings us back to Roma and its Oscars.

According to IndieWire, Spielberg will push for a rule change that will prevent Netflix titles from entering the Oscars bid.

“Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation,” a spokesperson for film and television production company Amblin 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.”

However, not all directors feel this way.

Ava DuVernay of Selma, A Wrinkle in Time, and the forthcoming Netflix limited series When They See Us sent an open letter to The Academy on Twitter, disagreeing with Spielberg.

“Dear @TheAcademy, 

This is a Board of Governors meeting. And regular branch members can’t be there. But I hope if this is true, that you’ll have filmmakers in the room or read statements from directors like me who feel differently. 

Thanks, Ava DuVernay.”

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