Are Netflix Original Movies More Suitable for The Emmys than The Oscars?

Over the years, Netflix has received critical acclaim for its supreme cinematic quality and, simultaneously, backlash for its recognition in film festivals. Last year, Netflix reached a new milestone: the streaming platform won awards from the esteemed Academy Awards and Venice Film Festival for the original movie, “Roma”. Despite this critical success, Netflix’s conflict with The Cannes Film Festival continues as, Netflix skips the 2019 edition and the before that.

In 2017, The Cannes Film Festival nominated Netflix original movies for the first time. However, Netflix’s inclusion in the competition caused some backlash. The Federation Of French Cinema (FNCF) questioned the legitimacy of Netflix films as candidates because French law states that a film must be kept off of streaming platforms for 36 months after its release theatres. The presence of Netflix films in Cannes threatened FNCF and cinema owners because theatre-goers could now watch Cannes nominated – or far worse, winning – movies from home. This new method of consumption would put the industry in jeopardy. Furthermore, film production companies were unhappy with Netflix in Cannes. Yes, the spirit of the festival is to celebrate brilliant films, but it also has an important commercial purpose: finding funding and distributors. Since Netflix movies are self-sufficient in that sense, for Netflix itself is the funding and distributor, its competitors frown upon its presence in Cannes for crowding out and disrupting the market.

Another influential opposition of Netflix in film festivals is Steven Spielberg. As a renowned director and a committee member of the Academy, he has attempted to ban Netflix productions from competing in The Academy. Spielberg believes that if a film streams on a TV format, it is a TV product. Therefore, films and Netflix films shouldn’t be held in the same regard as these are more deserving of Emmys. Furthermore, Netflix’s intrusion of film industry, raises concerns for cinema-goers in Spielberg’s opinion. Critical success in film awards will push Netflix to fund more movies and less directors will try to put films in theaters. In the end, there would be less movies available in the cinema and film-goers would be forced to watch movies from home. This changes the entire landscape of film production and consumption.

In response to Spielberg’s criticism Netflix issued a Tweet:

“We love cinema. Here are some things we also love:

-Access for people who can’t always afford, or live in towns without, theaters
-Letting everyone, everywhere enjoy releases at the same time
-Giving filmmakers more ways to share art

These things are not mutually exclusive.

— Netflix Film (@NetflixFilm) March 4, 2019”

In the meantime, Cannes has tried to convince Netflix to make wide releases of their films in theatres. However, Netflix’s main source of revenue is subscription. Their business model relies on making films that stream exclusively on the platform to get more people to subscribe. Hence, Netflix wouldn’t comply to Cannes – and the industry’s – demands and will continue to make only limited releases to qualify for film festivals. Unfortunately, it seems that the interests of the film industry and Netflix cannot be reconciled. Moreover, given its recent track record, the streaming service will continue to grow as film producer and distributor. While the industry wants to protect and maintain the old way of doing things; making movies and putting them in theaters, production and consumption patterns naturally follow market trends designated by the demand of audiences. Hence the direct to streaming model doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

By questioning the intrinsic value and the identity of Netflix original movies, the cinema industry attempts to halt Netflix’s growth, but undermining Netflix’s work by rendering it as something less than a film is farfetched. And with more companies like Disney creating their own streaming platforms is it not just too late to fight a wave that’s already here to stay?