For a few months, Steven Spielberg would have entered in war with Netflix. In the following article, IndieWire , the director even became the leader of the revolt against the platform, opposing emphatically the presence of the films that it produces for the Oscars. The american media had pressed the point home, announcing that the filmmaker would argue his cause at the annual meeting of the Academy, as a member of the council, where he represents the profession.
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about that would have to be consistent, especially after those that the filmmaker held last year during the promotion of Ready Player One : “the movies Netflix [may] deserve an Emmy Award (awards, news programs, editor’s NOTE), but certainly not an Oscar”.
“Mr. Spielberg has no animosity towards Netflix”
In an article published on 23 April, Brooks Barnes, the reporter from New York Times traces this alleged conflict and reveals the content of an e-mail that Steven Spielberg, himself, has sent him. Inside, the director clarifies his remarks and all the evidence suggests they have been distorted: “Mr. Spielberg has no animosity towards Netflix”, he says. According to two of his relatives who wished to keep anonymity, the filmmaker considers, however, that the operators of the rooms, the platforms of streaming and the regular studios should agree to protect what he likes to call the “theatrical form of the film”. And if the Academy came up with the project of just trying to reward the films screened at the cinema, there would be strong chances that Spielberg vote for, but he would not campaign for it.
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“I want the experience in the cinema lives on in our culture”
“First, Steven has never said that. Secondly, he did not intend to go to the Academy with this project, told Jeffrey Katzenberg, close to the filmmaker, during a panel at the SXSW Festival last march. This is a journalist who was on an article around this subject and had heard a rumor about Steven. He then called a spokesman for a statement, and, honestly, has embroidered around.”
Steven Spielberg will have more after the operators. Accusing them of not opposing a reduction of the chronology of the media which is currently a period of 90 days. It would even be assembled to the crenel in January of this year, when Roma has been nominated for an academy award for the best film, by calling AMC and Regal (the equivalent of Gaumont and UGC in France) to implore, to play the full-length film, despite its availability online. In vain.
“I want people to be able to entertain themselves the way they want”, wrote the director in the mail addressed to Brooks Barnes. Big screen, small screen – what really matters to me are the beautiful stories and all the world should be able to have access to it. On the other hand, I think people should have the opportunity to leave their personal comfort and in a place where they can sit in the company of others and to live a common experience – cry together, laugh together, get scared together, so that when it ends, they might feel a little less like aliens. I want movie theatres to live. I want the experience in the cinema lives on in our culture.” A cry from the heart for the director, who had been accused of being a hypocrite in the month of march last, at his appearance at the launch of Apple+ TV, the streaming platform of the firm to the apple.
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