Changes in Oscar’s streaming media
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account Poison Eyes (ID: youhaoxifilm).
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In 2014, “The Square” was nominated for the 86th Oscar for Best Documentary, and Netflix officially opened its Oscar road. Five years later, Netflix received the first Oscar nomination for best film with “Rome”, and the director of the film, Alfonso Caron, one of the “Three Mexicans”, won the best director. It was the first Oscar-nominated movie without box office records in history.
Rome has previously won several important awards
Over the past six years, Netflix has steadily increased its number of nominations in the 29th and 6th Oscars. This year, Netflix finally ushered in an explosion. Just on January 13, the nomination list for the 92nd Oscar was freshly released. Netflix received 24 nominations, defeating many traditional labels and receiving the most nominations.
Although Disney has had a great time in 2019, the global box office revenue exceeds 10 billion US dollars. But in this Oscar, the Disney Base Camp won 10 nominations. The acquired 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures each included six nominations, plus a nomination from Disney’s National Geographic, all adding 23 This is still less than Netflix.
Image source: CNBC
You know, Hollywood once used Netflix to show in theaters and online simultaneously.Was dissatisfied with the approach, believing that it challenged the relationship between the publisher and the theater for a long time. Until last year, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Academy) responsible for Oscars was ambiguous about streaming media. In April 2019, the academy revised some rules that may restrict streaming media from participating in the Oscars and also raised concerns about antitrust in the US Department of Justice.
Why does Netflix suddenly look great in Oscar in less than a year?
Oscar is working hard to diversify, Netflix is working hard to “enter the circle”
According to the New York Times, due to the impact of #OscarsSoWhite in 2015 and 2016 (the Oscar was too white, which was controversial because Oscar winners were mostly white), the college jury planned to increase the number of college members participating in the vote by 2020 Of women and ethnic minorities.
From 1980 to 2015, white male actors received 84% of awards, and white actresses received 89% of awards. Image source: Venngage
Oscar’s own data revealed that 50% of the 842 new college members in 2019 were women and 29% were people of color. This has also led to a further increase in the proportion of women and minorities among the approximately 9,000 voting members currently in Oscar: women rose from 25% in 2015 to 32% in 2019; colored people increased from 8% in 2015 Rising to 16% in 2019.
This is probably the college’s diversification attempt, which makes it no longer like the traditional Hollywood, avoiding the changes brought about by the rise of streaming media to the film industry. The Netflix nomination victory is a review of the strategic layout of the content by the streaming media, as well as a recognition of the original content that the streaming media participated in, which is quite profound.
Oscar’s efforts for diversity
Of course, the success of this Oscar nomination is also inseparable from Netflix’s efforts to enter the traditional film industry.
With Netflix receiving 15 nominations at the 2019 Oscars, on January 27, 2019, Netflix joined the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros. are the seventh members of the Hollywood “Big Six” (which has now become the “Big Five” with Disney’s acquisition of Fox) and the only streaming company among them. The outside world believes that this will be a turning point for the film industry and related business models, and Netflix is moving from being an “intruder” to becoming a mainstream player.
At one time, Netflix and traditional chain theaters had a tense relationship. “Irish” has tried to screen on traditional theaters AMC, Regal, Cinemark. Netflix is online, and Netflix can only accept a 30-day window period. In the end, they didn’t talk. On November 1, 2019, Netflix began to release “Irish” on some independent art theater lines, and Netflix members can enjoy the blockbuster movie at home on November 27.
The Irish
But the repeal of the Paramount Act at the end of 2019 is a turnaround. The Paramount Act, enacted in 1948, ruled that U.S. film studios must not own their own theaters or require theaters to exclusively underwrite their own company’s films. The repeal of the bill means that studios can regain control of the three major aspects of film production, distribution and screening. After the bill was repealed, Netflix signed a lease and formally took over New York’s independent art movie theater “Paris Theater”. Coincidentally, this theater was also born in 1948 and has been closed before. Some in the US film industry believe that Netflix may continue to test the water to buy theaters in the hope that it can truly compete with other “Big Five”.
In the traditional film industry, public relations is also an essential part of the annual awards season.
Although Hollywood boss Harvey Weinstein left the stage of Oscar’s public relations because of the sexual assault scandal, if he wants to get enough Oscar nominations,The local college members have performed multiple special screenings, giving away gifts around the movie, and “black” competing films that are stamped, all of which are common PR tips for the award season each year. Compared to budget-strapped independent film producers, in general, traditional big manufacturers will spend ten million dollars to sprint Oscar.
According to the magazine “Fast Company”, last year Netflix smashed $ 25 million in public relations costs for the production of “Rome”, which cost $ 15 million, and participated in the Oscar campaign. “Rome” also lived up to expectations and won 10 nominations. According to public relations sources, Netflix does spend money softly compared to other companies. This year, “rich and wayward” Netflix continues to fight public relations with luxury parties and massive promotional campaigns. Although Netflix ’s public spending was not specifically disclosed this year, judging from the sharp increase in the number of nominations, Netflix ’s public relations have fought another beautiful battle.
“Rome”
Netflix: We are serious about content
The success of Netflix in the 2020 awards season is an explosion of its focus on original content. Poisonous Eyes in the previous article also talked about the influence of Netflix on directors and script creation.
Specifically, according to the Oscar nominated films, Netflix ’s award-winning season, gangsters “Irish” and “Marriage Story” received 10 and 6 nominations, respectively.
The Irishman is directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Percy. Such a luxurious lineup is rare. This ministerFor three and a half hours, gangsters full of old times are no longer mainstream. Because of the need to use facial rejuvenation technology, the budget is high. Scorsese lamented that in the early years he could rely on Leonardo DiCaprio to star and find investors to make original stories. “Irish” has been brewing in his heart for many years, but has never found an investor. Netflix’s investment made the film available and attracted 27.6 million viewers in the first week of launch.
The “Marriage Story” focuses on how a couple can take different choices in marriage. Scarlett Johnson, the “wife sister”, and Adam Dreyfer, who played the star wars, contributed to a good performance. Similarly, the theme of “Marriage Story”, which is more than two hours long, is slightly unpopular. The “Marriage Life” by Ingmar Bergman is the first one. If Netflix is not involved in the production and distribution, it may be difficult. come out.
“Marriage Life” will be released in China
At the same time, Netflix has also received seven performance awards. It has also been nominated for script and visual effects, and has also won in the field of documentaries and documentaries.
In the field of animated movies, Netflix’s performance is also quite surprising.
The first animation produced by Netflix, “Klaus: The Secret of Christmas”, and the French animation “I Lost My Body”, which was sold out, were shortlisted for the best animation . In contrast, “Frozen 2” produced by Disney was unexpectedly nominated for the best animation although it fetched 1.4 billion US dollars in box office worldwide.
《I Lost My Body》
Klaus has a unique visual effect. Director Sergio Pablos said that this 2D animation uses new computer technology, allowing the painter to have more precise control of light and shadow, therebyThe movie seems to have a 3D effect, and the time and labor costs of this hand-painted 3D are high. The French animation “I Lost My Body” is full of surrealism, and won the best feature film of the International Film Critics Week unit at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. This is also the first time that the cartoon has been in this unit. Won this honor. Netflix quickly acquired the film after that.
Coincidentally, these two animations are both European works. Compared with American animations, which are more conservative due to Disney ’s dominance, low-cost European animations may bring us more aesthetic and narrative exploration. Possibility. This is also a typical demonstration of the innovative Netflix original genes.
Actually, Netflix did not intend to make original content from the beginning, but the high annual copyright fees and the pressure of copyright owners to leave at any time made it determined to set up its own content industry.
In 2012, Netflix invited the great director David Finch to make the first two episodes of the first season of “House of Cards”, which was still a stage where the Internet film and television works were at the bottom of the chain. And now, no one feels weird that any major director has a relationship with Netflix.
Netflix’s cornering overtaking starts with what traditional manufacturers are unwilling or unable to do.
The late legend, “Citizen Kane” director Orson Wells’s “The Other Side of the Wind” is quite experimental and was bought by Netflix in 2018. The Cohen brothers’ anti-routine western film, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” revives a collection of films that few people make today, and is also produced by Netflix. The 2019 drug-themed movie “Tripartite Borders” has a flat reputation, but it can collect Qiben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hannum, Garnett Hedland, Pedro Pascal And luxury cards like Adriatic Horner.
“The other side of the wind”
There are many other works that have box office risks or high budgets. Without Netflix, they may not be available for the time being.
According to public information, Netflix invested a total of US $ 12 billion in original content in 2018, and this number may be US $ 15 billion in 2019. Looking ahead to 2020, Netflix’s new movie productions also include “Deadpool”Ryan Reynolds, Boulder Johnson, and Gail Gadot joined the action film” Red Wanted “,” Spider-Man “Tom Herland and” Twilight Man “Robert Pattinson starred in” God “Abandoned Land” and “Thanks Ear” Jim Parsons’ new film “Band Boy” is very exciting.
Not only in movies, according to US media reports, in 2019 alone, Netflix invested $ 1.1 billion in original animations. It is said that the platform has 70 original IP anime works in the project or in production. Among them is “Over the Moon” in collaboration with the Chinese animation studio Oriental DreamWorks. From the Douban movie entry, this film tells the story of a little girl making a rocket to the moon in search of the legendary Chang’e. The film is expected to be released in the Chinese Academy in 2020, and overseas audiences can enjoy the film through the Netflix platform.
In fact, Netflix has been at major film festivals for several years before this Oscar. In 2015, Netflix’s “Beasts of Borderlessness” was nominated for both the Venice Film Festival and the Golden Globe Awards. At the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Netflix produced, Korean director Feng Junhao’s “Jade” and American director Noah Baumbach’s “Meyerowitz’s Story” were shortlisted for the main competition. What’s different at this moment is that at the time, Netflix’s work was nominated, and the outside world was full of resistance. Because of French regulations, movies screened in French theaters must be broadcast on French streaming media after three years. Netflix even withdrew from the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, and barely appeared in Cannes in 2019.
Netflix withdraws from Cannes Film Festival 2018
At this moment in Netflix, who doesn’t say a word to himself, the future is great.
Compiled from:
QUARTZ | Netflix has taken over the Oscars | Adam Epstein
CNBC | Netflix leads Oscar nominations with24 nods—a first for a streaming service | Sarah Whitten
The Hollywood Reporter | Oscars: NetflixHas a Big First Year in the Animation Race; ‘Frozen 2’ Snubbed | CarolynGiardina
The Hollywood Reporter | Netflix ForgoesWide Release for Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ | Pamela McClintock, Rebecca Keegan
WIRED | Why is Netflix buying cinemas? The answer is Martin Scorsese | Alex Lee