With 8 Oscar Nominations, Netflix Proves It’s a Film Force to be Reckoned With
Has Netflix finally cracked the Oscars? On Tuesday, the streaming behemoth made Academy Award histor..
Has Netflix finally cracked the Oscars? On Tuesday, the streaming behemoth made Academy Award history as the first streaming service to land eight nominations, including four for its feature film Mudbound. The news proves that the Academy isn’t completely resistant to the Netflix distribution model. And though Netflix has yet to worm its way into the best-picture category, like its arch-rival Amazon did last year with Manchester By the Sea, Tuesday’s news proves the company is gaining industry approval quickly.
“This is a huge day. It’s so exciting,” said Scott Stuber, head of Netflix’s film group. “It’s always great when you are in the middle of someone’s coming-out party. This is the recognition they all deserve and their careers have all been changed because of it.”
The news is significant to the well-capitalized company that has upended Hollywood, acquiring top talent with hefty paydays and releasing films on its service and in theaters on the same day. Despite the company’s huge success—it announced on Monday that in the most recent quarter, it added 8 million new subscribers—the one area that remained elusive to Netflix was the Oscars, with some members of the Academy chafing at the company’s rebellious day-and-date release strategy. But that has now changed, with the haul earned by Mudbound.Mary J. Blige earned two nominations—for her song “Mighty River” and her supporting-actress performance in Mudbound—while Dee Rees and Virgil Williams were nominated for their adapted screenplay, and Rachel Morrison was cited for cinematography, making her the first female cinematographer in history to land a nomination. The historical drama has now earned the same number of nominations as Call Me by Your Name and Get Out, though each of those films landed best-picture noms as well.
Stuber thinks that this recognition means the Academy’s resistance to its model is thawing.
“At the end of the day, we want to expand the love of movies. That’s what we want to do. I’ve been an Academy member for 20 years, and we want to make sure a generation of kids grows up with the same love of movies we grew up with,” said the executive, who used to run production at Universal Pictures. “Technology, in general, is changing consumer habits. Now because of the explosion of television, and the ability for a human being to be entertained for two hours by whatever app they have on their phone, we have to expand the love of storytelling and film. . . . For us, we want to be part of that and we want to be part of the cinematic experience, too. But we recognize that the consumer is now in control.”
Mudbound, which Netflix bought out of the Sundance Film Festival last year, was a film that other distributors passed on, due to its lengthy run time (2 hours and 15 min) and tough subject matter. Beginning last November, the studio screened the movie in theaters for five weeks, reaching 17 theaters in 11 markets at its widest point while it simultaneously streamed online.
The studio is now finalizing its plans to return Mudbound to the big screen in honor of its four Oscar nominations.
“Mudbound was a movie that a year ago no one else wanted,” said Stuber. “I’m proud that we as a company stood up and said we want this film. We put it on our back, and gave this talent the exposure it deserved.”
Netflix’s other nominations include recognition for its short subject documentary Heroin(e), its foreign-language film from Hungary, On Body and Soul, and two long-form documentaries; Icarus, about the Russian doping scandal and Strong Island, which examines the judicial system in a very personal story.
What may be most significant is the Academy’s recognition of cinematographer Rachel Morrison. Not only does the veteran shooter behind such films as Fruitvale Station, the Jennifer Aniston-starrer Cake, and 2015’s Dope become a historic nominee—but this nod also means that enough of her peers in the cinematography branch recognized the scope of her work, whether they viewed the films in theaters or at home.
Morrison—whose next film, Marvel’s Black Panther, will debut next month—was in the airport in Los Angeles when she heard the news, getting ready to board a plane to Salt Lake City for her role as a Sundance juror in the feature competition category.
“I was surprised, because I wasn’t sure what time they were going to make the announcement and I was also trying not to wake my sleeping 2-and-a-half-year-old,” said Morrison. “I was silently dancing and screaming. I probably looked like a crazy person in the airport.”
As a cinematographer, Morrison was most interested in debuting her film in theaters—so when Netflix bought the project, she was initially hesitant about its prospects. That changed when she realized that without the streaming service, the movie might have never reached the audience it did.
“It was a double-edged sword,” she said. “I recognized that they were really our champions and our saviors. But of course, the D.P. in me wanted to make sure people had a chance to see it on the big screen.”
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Nicole SperlingNicole Sperling is a Hollywood Correspondent for Vanity Fair.