Steven Spielberg has shared his view on whether movies produced as Netflix originals should be considered as Academy Award nominees.
The acclaimed director spoke to ITV while promoting ‘Ready Player One’ and responded to the idea of films like ‘Mudbound’ and Ava DuVernay’s documentary ’13th’ being Oscar nominated.
“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”, Spielberg said. “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”.
Spielberg justified his stance but caveating that he isn’t just a snob, apparently. His comments are part of an industry-wide discussion about the way films are distributed since studios are focused on playing it safe with “branded, tentpole, guaranteed box office hits”.
Watch the full interview with Spielberg below.
“Television is really thriving with quality and art”, the director noted. “Fewer and fewer filmmakers are going to struggle to raise money in order to compete in Sundance and possibly get one of the specialty labels to release their film theatrically publicly, and more of them are going to let the SVOD (streaming video on-demand) business finance their films.”
Read more: ‘Ready Player One’ – Film Review
Earlier this year, Spielberg shared his thoughts on life in Hollywood in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal – as well as responding to Catherine Deneuve’s comments slamming the #MeToo campaign.
“I’m sorry I don’t see it as a witch-hunt – I see it as an imperative”, he said. “This is not just another blip on the news cycle, this is something that isn’t just going to be yesterday’s news in 24 hours.