Netflix responds to Steven Spielberg's campaign to remove its movies from Academy Awards consideration
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Netflix has apparently responded to Steven Spielberg's calls to remove its movies from Academy Awards consideration. (Getty Images)
Netflix seems to have issued a harsh response to famed director Steven Spielberg’s ongoing calls to have its movies removed from Academy Awards consideration.
Although the streaming giant did not mention the “Jurassic Park” director by name, it posted a tweet on Sunday by way of its film account in which it directly addressed the issue of its movies not being Oscars-eligible in the future, after Spielberg insisted that they’re not the same as a theater cinema experience.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We love cinema. Here are some things we also love,” the tweet read. What followed was a list of three items that acted as a rebuke of Spielberg’s complaints.
“- Access for people who can’t always afford, or live in towns without, theaters
- Letting everyone, everywhere enjoy releases at the same time
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}- Giving filmmakers more ways to share art.”
The tweet concluded by saying, “These things are not mutually exclusive.”
Spielberg has weighed in before on whether streaming movies should compete for the film industry's most prestigious award (TV movies, he said last year, should compete for Emmys), but that was before Netflix nearly succeeded in getting its first best picture Oscar for Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" at last week's Academy Awards. Netflix, of course, did not win the top award — "Green Book," which was produced partially by Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, did.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Spielberg will speak to the Academy’s board of directors in an effort to get it to reconsider its stance on allowing Netflix movies to be considered for Oscars.
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Netflix also isn't playing by the same rules as other studios. The company doesn't report theatrical grosses, for one, and it's been vexing some more traditional Hollywood executives throughout this award season and there have been whispers in recent weeks that a reckoning is coming.
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“Steven feels strongly about the difference between the streaming and theatrical situation,” a representative for Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment said, according to 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.”