Again, these movies all met the requirements for the Academy Awards, which include a theatrical release.
Right, but the proposal from Spielberg is to change the requirements to qualify for the Academy Awards.
I’m responding directly to Quimby saying movies need to be in the theaters to qualify. They already do.
But why would it do that? If the ‘normal’ movie is good, then it should win. If it’s not, then it shouldn’t. It would only lose if the Oscars is specifically biased towards arthouse movies. If that is so, then that’s what he should try to fix.
If a ‘normal’ movie can compete at the box office, it should be able to compete in an awards ceremony. Clearly people want to watch it, and thus find something worthy about it. You can’t correlate box office with quality directly, but it does show there’s quality among them.
And if he’s worried he can’t compete there, then release movies in streaming. His movie he can’t create because it’s too artsy? Make it, but stream it.
The problem is not that we need some awards to be artificially limited to the movies that get less money spent on them. Independent film awards already exist.
I consider streaming content the same as tv.
Movies are big budget projects and require much longer time to film.
Distribution method doesn’t really set cost or time. These movies aren’t necessarily being made for Netflix. Roma was filmed in 2016, Netflix picked it up in 2018.
How many times has the film-going experience changed?
Well, there was the shift from silents to talkies. Now you can’t even talk quietly in movie theaters. That sound gimmick got plenty of push-back.
Then the intermission rose and fell. Older films were too short to need one, then the big epic movies, the ones which got roadshow releases, had to have one, and now the practice is dead, even with long movies. You can’t use the restroom without missing something and I’m sure concession sales have taken a hit.
The roadshow itself is mostly gone, and with it reserved seats; reserved seats are starting to make a comeback, but the roadshow in all its Old Hollywood glamor isn’t. Really, the “movie palace” as a whole is extinct, with some arthouse cinemas manfully trying to keep some of the style but mainly succeeding at a Gloria Swanson-style faded glory. And they’re usually so small…
There’s no way to come into a showing in the middle and stay until you could say “This is where we came in” and leave. People might still say “This is where we came in” and leave but most people have no idea where the phrase comes from and where it left to. Thanks, Hitchcock!
Second-run theaters are gone; the closest we have are arthouse cinemas playing classic cinema, which lacks the classic seediness of some cheap theater playing a faded blockbuster. It’s the whole theater/cinema thing, I’m sure. Anyway, you can get older movies on-demand and they’re still movies, so… I’m sure Spielberg wants me to stop thinking now.
The only thing that’s remained constant is going to a specific location to watch a movie alongside (not with, alongside) complete strangers. Can you talk quietly? Is there going to be reserved seating and a big production made? Will you see completely disconnected shows before the main attraction? Will you be able to leave in the middle and come back without missing anything? Will you be able to see this show in a theater six months from now at a reduced price?
Spielberg, like all preservationists, wants to preserve something which has already mutated substantially. He’s picking an arbitrary point in something’s evolution and saying, this is it, it changes no further.
The fact the world went to see Psycho at an appointed hour and heard the famous screams shows you how effective such people usually are.
One change you didn’t mention was the switch to widescreen images. Before television, movies were in a 4:3 aspect ratio and the widescreen standards like Cinerama were attempts at giving people something they couldn’t see at home. Of course, today, all televisions are widescreen (16:9 or similar).
How would he know? He makes effete trash; but hey, as long as it makes money!
I also didn’t mention the rise of color, with the idea that it didn’t change the experience hugely, but maybe the rise of wide-screen movies was a bigger shift than I realize.
I understand that. Oscar eligible movies should get a real theatrical release to qualify not a token one.
If you’re talking about Spielberg, this might be the most ridiculous statement in this thread.
I nominated “Too Many Cooks” for short form a few years back (and a Hugo acceptance speech and Gollum’s MTV award acceptance speech both made the Hugo short list).
“You young whipper-snappers & your digital voodoos and hoodoos! GET OFFA MY LAWN!”
So you object because they won’t say how much money it’s making? Why should that matter? It played in around 100 theaters in the US, that’s more than many indie films. It’s still playing today at a theater near me.
From the Onion:
Steven Spielberg Criticizes Netflix For Ruining Golden Age Of Pandering Big-Budget Corporate Films
I’d be more sympathetic to this argument if Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube wouldn’t be falling over themselves to hand Spielberg a blank check if he wanted to make something for their services.
But, overall, I agree with Spielberg. The Oscars are shit, and always have been. Anything that hurries their slide into cultural obsolescence is something I can absolutely get behind.
Season eight episodes for Game of Thrones were budgeted for $15-million each. That’s $120-million just for that season. If you factor in the preceeding seven seasons at a cost that escalated from $6- to $10-million I’m sure the project as a whole spent far more than any single movie, and most franchises.
Now, I’m not saying GoT should qualify for an Oscar, having no theatrical release at all, but the industry has been playing fast and loose with theatrical qualifications for a long time. Living in Orange county as a high schooler 50 years ago, I was aware of movies showing in Los Angeles in one theater from Christmas Day to New years’ Eve – precisely a week – then vanishing for months until an Oscar buzz had built up.
Spielberg is great, but he’s not always right. Like in this case. The package/delivery of streaming video is different, but it’s still cinema.
TV Movies can be Cinema and they should totally win an Emmy Award for it.