Can a Netflix Movie Be Considered a "Real" Movie?

I don't know about Canavale, but Pesci and Keitel certainly are A-Listers based solely on their body of work.

 

And this just happened today in Hollywoo...

 

I understand this month, they will be premiering Steven Spielberg movies.

 

Next thing, you're going to try and tell me the Grammys don't matter either!

 

No, I won't be telling you that on a music forum. Not that I have ever watched a Grammy Award's show.

By the same token, I won't be saying anything bad about the Beatles either.

 

And just to update this story: apparently, the Academy has decided yes, the rules as they exist right now don't need to be changed, and a Netflix film can still be considered a real movie and is eligible for Oscars provided it's shown in theaters (even a handful of screens) prior to the eligibility date.

Netflix Wins As Academy Leaves Oscar Eligibility Rule Unchanged

"...the board left intact Rule Two, the one that established that a film can be eligible for Oscars if it has a minimum 7-day theatrical run in a L.A. County commercial theater. That theater has to have a minimum of three screenings each of those seven days for paid admission, and that those movies can be released on streaming sites on or after the first day of their theatrical qualifying run."

The story neglects to remind readers that Netflix officially joined the MPAA as kind of a "mini-studio" back in January...

https://deadline.com/2019/01/netflix-in-talks-to-join-mpaa-1202539433/

 

A talk with a Best Buy young Millennial sales person told me streaming movies is the only way to compete against what amounts to highway robbery from available (in my area) cable TV programming packages. Never quite understood "Smart TV" technology until the informative salesman told me all I have to have is an internet router and ethernet port on my HDtv or a wifi setup with my AT&T account. My internet is in my bedroom but my TV is in my living room.

He made clear navigation requires I download an app to the TV that is similar to navigating in a browser. But then he buried the headline with this caveat after I asked him what internet provider and bandwidth requirements are in the city we both live in order to use streaming services like Netflix. I told him I was on AT&T Access for $10/month/12mbs DSL. I pay $50/month for Spectrum Basic Limited cable at $23/month, the rest is padding from various obscure entities such as Broadcast fees so I can get the 3 networks.

He said I'ld need more than a DSL router connection to stream movies at HD quality and described his setup with AT&T that gave him 50mbs where I had to find out first in my area of it's available. In short my choices have been limited and I don't see any other option to get streaming which the salesman said he's paying $30/month to get 50mbs bandwidth.

Something is really messed up with current content delivery competitors and I don't see a way out of it unless Congress does something about it.

I can't even get free air HD channel reception with an antenna living close to an Interstate highway which coincidentally is part of my state of Texas District that looks suspiciously mapped to include only poor, Hispanic and other disenfranchised communities as a voting block. You would not believe the number of returned Free Air Antennas at my local stores. I can only get one news station which is believe it or not Fox News!

 

Is a "real movie" still defined by the Academy as one that is socially conscious by covering themes that advance all cultures and socioeconomic classes?

IOW will the poor and disenfranchised get to see these movies on Netflix even though they may not be able to afford the service?

 

The poor and disenfranchised don't get to do much of anything. If they did, they would neither be poor not would they be disenfranchised.

 

It depends! There's a lotta rules.

As long as a Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/Apple/whatever production met the run-time rule (I think it has to be at least 75 minutes), and is shown in theaters for a week or so in a few theaters, it qualifies as a movie.

There are so many different kinds of TV shows -- specials, limited series, TV movies, dramas, documentaries, comedies, etc. -- each one has to fit a specific category of the Emmy rules.

 

I noticed you didn't answer the first part of my quote and went for the obvious as a comeback. I hope that was worth your time to write such a response. I can't say it was for me to read with regard to new information.

 

I watched the Last Seduction last night and I learned that they tried to get Linda Fiorentino nominated for an Academy Award but was deemed ineligible due to the film being first shown on HBO. The producers sued but lost. She certainly deserved it. As I was watching it, I never thought "Oh, this is an HBO film so it's not a real movie".

 

You use the term still defined in connection with what constitutes a "real Movie" by the academy.

You do clarify your definition of a real movie as being, "one that is socially conscious by covering themes that advance all cultures and socioeconomic classes".

Perhaps you can show us where the Academy ever set this definition for what they consider a real movie to be?

To the best of my knowledge, the Academy has never set any standard or definition with regard to the them or content of any movie, with the exception of the Award class that it can be considered for.

So the first part of your post made not a great deal of sense to me. Neither did the second part.

What does being poor and disenfranchised have to do with being able to afford to watch a movie on Netflix have to do with anything.

That being the case, do the poor and disenfranchised get to see the same movie in the theater for free? I think not.

A movie is a commercial for profit enterprise, people pay to see movies. A movie shown on Netflix is not any different in this regard to the same movie being shown in a commercial theater.

For the "poor and disenfranchised", commercial broadcast TV programming has been available to them for well over a half century. Broadcast TV does show movies.