Steven Spielberg Walks Back His Netflix Comments After Academy Rules To Maintain Its Oscar Eligibili
Earlier this year, reports suggested that Steven Spielberg could make a push at this weeks gathering of the Academys board of governors to decide on new Oscar nominee rules. Said rules would be to hit back at films that debut on streaming services such as Netflix receiving nominations.
Initial reports by  this year suggested that Spielberg would attend the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences governors meeting — which took place yesterday — in an attempt to get the Academys rules changed when it came to nominees from streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu.
Currently, films that debut on streaming platforms, then also head to a limited theatrical run, reach the current release requirements for Oscar nomination qualification.
That was only part of why Spielberg was allegedly rankled by their presence at the Oscars, alongside the fact that Netflix in particular had the marketing money to vastly overwhelm other independent nominee hopefuls during awards season.
Netflix, on the other hand, argued that its place at the Oscars table meant that nominees such as Roma could reach a much wider audience by being accessible day and date on its service than they typically would have done with just a limited theatrical release.
Indiewires report wasnt the first time it was said that Spielberg was allegedly against streaming service films being considered for Oscar eligibility — he told British press last year he thought Netflixs output  for recognition at the Emmys rather than the Oscars, saying to ITV, Once you commit to a television format, youre a TV movie.
But it was this alleged plan to go to the Academys board this week that drew the most headlines — and even a reaction from Netflix itself:
But it turns out it was all for nought — not only did the Academy  the rules around streaming services and their place at the Oscars, Spielberg didnt even attend the meeting.
reported yesterday that Spielberg was too busy working on his remake of West Side Story in New York to attend — and, citing sources, that the director believes his statements about Netflix have been overblown by the media.
But that alleged belief did not stop Spielberg from providing a comment to the Times, in which he walked back his earlier Emmys comments and said instead his priority wasnt that services such as Netflix lost their seat at the Oscars table, but instead to preserve the idealism of the movie theatre experience:
It should be noted that Spielbergs apparent change of heart comes after reports by  last month that the director met with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos in the wake of the news regarding his alleged campaign.
And after he made a big to do alongside Apple  when he unveiled his  as part of the tech companys  for Apple TV+.
But re positioning his concern about streaming services as a defence of the tangible moviegoing experience is a bit more noble than sneering that maybe the output of streaming services, in an age where theres more and more of them , should belong with those teevee awards instead of at the Oscars.
