Steven Spielberg Says Netflix Movies Shouldn't Qualify for Oscars

In promotion of an upcoming film of his, Ready Player One, Steven Spielberg sat down with ITV News for an interview, where he expressed his opinion about Netflix films and their eligibility for the Oscars. A cinematic pioneer since the ’70s, Spielberg explained his view; “Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie…Television is thriving with quality and art, but it endangers film as a form because creators won’t brave the indie awards scene, and just to go to streaming providers instead. But once you do, the creation crosses a Rubicon to become television and shouldn’t be considered for an Academy Award.” He also went on to criticize Netflix for its sneaky strategy of meeting minimum requirements to qualify its more noteworthy movies for Oscars — to be considered for an Oscar, a movie must premier in theaters, however Netflix will often premier its film in theatres for a very limited time, and also release it on streaming the same day.

Spielberg is just one of many people in the industry who have expressed their disapproval for Netflix films; the consensus generally being that Netflix also takes a very TV approach towards budget, production, and cinematography which creates very visually uninteresting and non-innovative final products.

Check out the interview in full above, in other film news, Street Fighter is getting a live action version soon.