After the GM warnings, the Oscars decide that Netflix is ​​fine, after all

Netflix and other streaming platforms will not be banned from the Oscars as the Academy of Arts and Film Science has rejected calls by Steven Spielberg and others to restrict eligibility for annual awards.

The Academy's Board of Governors has approved the February 2020 Oscars Rules and has not changed the eligibility criteria. As before, feature films must be screened for at least a week in a Los Angeles County Theater to be eligible, a requirement for a Netflix-supported film, such as Roma encountered on their way to win prizes. Proposals to impose theater series of at least four weeks have been rejected.

"We support the theatrical experience as an integral part of the art of cinema, and this has weighed heavily in our discussions," said yesterday the Academy's president, John Bailey. "Our rules currently require a theatrical exhibition and also allow for the submission of a wide selection of Oscar-winning films, and we plan to further explore the profound changes in our industry and to continue discussions with our members on these issues. . "

The unchanged rule maintains eligibility for non-motion picture films (for example, online streaming services, broadcasting or cable television, DVDs) "as of the first day of their qualifying tour for the theater in Los Angeles County ". The required seven-day theatrical run must include "at least three screenings per day for a paid admission". As before, movies will not be eligible if they "receive their first public exhibition or distribution otherwise than in the form of a motion picture".

The Academy was under pressure from the federal government to leave the rule unchanged. The antitrust division of the United States Department of Justice warned the academy in a letter last month that preventing the broadcast of movies in streaming only could constitute a violation of antitrust laws.

"In the event that the Academy – an association of many competitors – establishes certain conditions of Oscar eligibility that eliminate competition without any competitive justification, such conduct may raise antitrust concerns," he said. the Academy at a press conference the head of the antitrust department of the DOJ, Makan Delrahim. time.

Spielberg wants theaters to "stay relevant"

A spokesman for Spielberg told IndieWire last February that the famous director was considering supporting an effort to limit the eligibility of films mainly distributed via streaming platforms such as Netflix. Spielberg had said in March 2018 that "once you've engaged in a televised format, you're a TV movie" and that such a film deserved perhaps an Emmy "but not an Oscar" . Films that simply meet the "symbolic" qualification of a week in a movie theater should not be eligible for the Oscars, he said at the time.

Spielberg is a member of the board of governors of the Academy, but he apparently would not have attended the meeting yesterday and has remained silent about it for the past two months. An article in the New York Times yesterday said that "Mr. Spielberg's animosity towards Netflix seems to have been overestimated."

"I want people to find their entertainment in the form or fashion that suits them", whether on "big screen" or "small screen," Spielberg told The Times.

"However, I feel that people must have the opportunity to leave their safe and familiar lives and go to a place where they can sit in the company of others and live a common experience: crying together, laugh together, be scared together … so that, once finished, they feel a little less foreign, "he continued. "I want to see the survival of movie theaters, I want the theatrical experience to remain relevant to our culture."