Mailbag: We Answer Your Questions About Spielberg vs. Netflix and "Film Twitter"

On the March 6, 2019 episode of /Film Daily, /Film editor in Chief Peter Sciretta is joined by /Film senior writer Ben Pearson, and writer Hoai-Tran Bui to answer some listener emails in the Mail Bag. You can subscribe to /Film Daily on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the popular podcast apps (here is the RSS URL if you need it). In The Mailbag: Austin from Dallas Texas writes in “I thought I would chime in. I lean towards Spielberg’s side on this. For me it’s not about Netflix or Amazon not being able to release a movie and it not being good. The Oscars to me is for a particular medium just like the Emmy’s. Netflix was using to me a loophole intended for shorts and indie films to their advantage. I feel they should have to do a wide release of their films to qualify. Idk how you put rules into place to not exclude indie films though. Maybe have it based on budget? To me Netflix movies are equivalent to straight to VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray. Those would not be considered for Oscars so why should they. Maybe it’s time to add a streaming category?” Langdon Kessner writes in “Hi Peter,  Big fan of the site and the podcast. I'd like to offer a defense of Spielberg, and I'm honestly shocked that so many people are against him, specifically #FilmTwitter. Watching the argument go from "Spielberg hates Netflix" (which is not true) to "Spielberg doesn't care about minorities" (also not true) was maddening.   For starters, it's important to note (and I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned on the podcast), Spielberg was a huge part of getting Five Came Back, a documentary, produced on Netflix. Author Mark Harris himself stated it would not exist without him. So this idea that Spielberg just hates Netflix and is a cartoon grandpa yelling at clouds is ridiculous (not saying you guys pushed this idea, but social media did).  The issue here is the way Netflix treats their movies, and more importantly, the theaters. Not many of them have been given a proper theatrical release. And even the ones that do come with rules from Netflix. For the few theaters that were able to get Roma in 70mm, Netflix had a lot of rules that made it difficult for them to screen it. It had to be shown in Dolby Atmos, and it could only be screened from Thursday to Sunday. I know this because I wrote a series of articles on independent movie theaters in Boston, and still occasionally talk to the managers. All have said that Netflix is extremely cagey and reticent to conversation when it comes to showing their movies in theaters.  Also important to note (and I was also disappointed this wasn't mentioned): Amazon Prime does not do this. They have a 90-day theatrical window and nobody, least of all Spielberg, is mad at them for it. That's the point Spielberg is making. That Netflix doesn't give their films a proper theatrical release, and instead just a token one so they can qualify for the Oscars. You guys mentioned on the podcast that it feels like elitists saying "No, you can't be in our club". To me, it feels like an first-year employee demanding a promotion without going through the ranks.   And Joseph Kahn made a great point (I won't rehash the whole thing here), but "Oscars are meant to promote the theatrical experience. So Netflix releasing a movie in one theater and claiming they should be celebrated with an Oscar the same way like BlacKkKlansman or even yes, Green Book, is not remotely fair." Basically, if Netflix followed the Amazon Prime model, there'd be no issue. But they don't and prioritize home viewing which is television. A line does need to be drawn and this only happened because Netflix blurred the line between film and television. If they can afford to dump $8 billion in content, they can certainly afford a theatrical release.  Sorry that I wrote a lot, but this debate has infuriated me. Two corporations are going to head-to-head yet Netflix is somehow the underdog? Ugh. This has nothing to do with quality of Netflix (which is Osca Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy