This year's Oscars were controversial for a myriad of reasons, but the one that's got Senor Spielbergo particularly p*ssed off is Netflix having anything to do with it.
Per a report in IndieWire, the five-time Oscar winner is leading a charge to ensure Netflix is out of next year's race by imposing that each and every movie in the Best Picture category race has a four-week, uninterrupted run at cinemas.
Currently, all you need to do in order to qualify for the Best Picture category is to have a one-week engagement at a cinema in Los Angeles, and it must happen in the year before that Oscars' ceremony.
Not only that, the rules governing inclusion also cover streaming. No movie can be released in a non-theatrical format before it's screened in Los Angeles, meaning that if they movie was first released on a streaming service and then was released in a Los Angeles cinema, it won't count.
As far as these rules go, 'Roma' met all of these. For Steven Spielberg and a number of heavy hitters in the industry, it's not enough.
The main bug-bear has been just how much money Netflix spent on the Oscar campaign for 'Roma', with conservative estimates putting it in the region of $30 million. IndieWire's report, however, estimates $50 million. The eventual winner, 'Green Book', only had $5 million to parlay into an Oscar campaign.
Furthermore, 'Roma' only spent three weeks in cinemas - not enough in a lot of Spielberg's mind - and Netflix, of course, doesn't release any viewing data, box office figures or respect the 90-day theatrical window from cinema to home format. To top it all off, the fact that 'Roma' is available in 190 countries across the world, 24 hours a day, is a bone of contention.
As it stands, these are complaints by Spielberg et al - and not rule infractions as set down by the Academy. Spielberg's bone of contention is that Netflix movies are, in his opinion, TV movies - and should only qualify for the Emmys, not the Oscars. In a way, he's not wrong. They are technically TV movies, since they appear on our screens first and rarely - if ever - see the inside of a cinema.
However, Netflix has been a champion of indie filmmakers and has given them a voice when the traditional studio system has not. It's understandable that Spielberg is arguing for clarity, and that Netflix and other streaming services are proving harmful to cinema as an experience, but the fact is that audiences are moving because the demand is there.
Social media reaction has been fairly even split between those pro and against, but one thing seems fairly certain - Netflix is readying itself for another run at the Best Picture category with Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman', due for release later this year.
