Netflix, Streaming Services Win Oscars Cinema Rule Battle

Reuters
By Reuters
April 26, 2019Entertainment
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In a win for Netflix, Amazon and other internet streaming services, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has voted not to change its rules for winning an Oscar, Hollywood’s top prize.

The decision follows a battle over how long a movie must play on the big screens in theaters before being launched on the internet, DVD or other mediums that put it on the small screen.

The Academy’s Board of Governors said on April 23 that the existing rules, which say a movie has to run in a theater for only seven days in Los Angeles to qualify, had won.

“We support the theatrical experience as integral to the art of motion pictures, and this weighed heavily in our discussions,” Academy President John Bailey said in a release.

Some theater owners say short runs at a theater means more people will stay home to watch movies.

And movie producers including Steven Spielberg have said movies that are shown primarily on the small screen should only compete for television awards, such as the Emmys.

Actress Laura Dern, who is on the board of governors at the Academy, said the subject was a “continued conversation” but also an exciting time for film.

NTD Photo
Stock image of a Netflix remote control. (jgryntysz/Pixabay)

She told Reuters on Wednesday: “We are all looking at the future of film and I think it’s a continued conversation that’s exciting because we are here to consider honoring and upholding excellence in film and we are starting to have various different ways that we see film so I think it is exciting that everyone is working together to be open to sort of what the future is going to hold and what a new model is going to look like.”

“And I am just happy also to be part of, like we are in the projects that we are getting to work on, considering voices in culture and in arts being heard and hopefully louder than ever because we need all voices to be honored and even within places like the Academy so it’s an exciting time to make sure that there’s true representation and diversity in storytelling,” she added.

In February, Netflix won three Oscars for “Roma,” which streamed three weeks after a limited theatrical debut.

Netflix tweeted that it “loved cinema” but also supported access for people who cannot afford or do not live close to, theaters.

Ticket sales in 2018 reached a record $41 billion globally and $12 billion in the United States and Canada, even as Netflix released about 90 movies for streaming.

The Academy’s Bailey said the rule could be revisited next year.

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