With film awards season just around the corner, digital platforms are bringing out their big guns. After Air by Ben Affleck on behalf of Amazon Studios, here are Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio at Apple for The American touch (Flower Moon Killer) and Bradley Cooper with maestro and Jodie Foster with Annette Bening for Unsinkable on Netflix. Overview…
Amazon was the first streaming studio to receive an Oscar nomination. It was in the running for best film statuette in 2017 with “Manchester on the Sea”. Since then the situation has developed significantly. The following year, Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” on Netflix won ten nominations and three Oscars – although not for best picture – and sparked an event that moved Steven Spielberg and called on the Academy for Oscars, AMPAS, to change its rules change to prevent productions from digital platforms. “If it’s a good film, of course it deserves an Emmy. But certainly not an Oscar,” the filmmaker said this year.
Photo provided by Netflix
The rise… and fall of the Netflix house
In 2019, “The Irishman” by Martin Scorsese, released on Netflix, received no fewer than 10 nominations… without winning an Oscar at the ceremony on February 9, 2020. Then the pandemic brought the film industry to a standstill. “What really accelerated the success of platforms at awards shows was COVID,” analyzes a veteran publicist in the pages of Vanity Fair.
And indeed, the nominations for the 2021 ceremony demonstrate this legitimacy. Nomadland by Chloé Zhao wins the statuette for best film. It also aired on Hulu on the same day as its theatrical release. The following year the trend accelerated. In total, the three streaming platforms – Netflix, Apple and Amazon – received 37 nominations and CODA, the first-ever feature film produced by a platform studio, won the top honor.
As the pandemic ends, studios are encouraging moviegoers to return to theaters. The nominations at the March 12 ceremony show the decline of the platforms. Netflix, Amazon and Apple were only mentioned 19 times, 16 for Netflix and three for Amazon, with Apple simply ignored.
The crystal ball for 2023-2024
This year, Ben Affleck’s Air: Courting a Legend opened the ball. Produced by Amazon Studios, the feature film was released in theaters in April before airing on Prime Video. And after a rather quiet summer, the streamers are now letting loose at the start of the awards season.
This makes “Killers of the Flower Moon” by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and Robert De Niro and produced by Apple Original Films, one of the big favorites of the year. The excellent feature film, which was presented at Cannes last May, will be released in cinemas on October 20th before being broadcast on Apple TV+ at an as yet undisclosed date.
Photo provided by Apple TV+
Flora and Son, a musical comedy by John Carney (Nouveau Refrain) with Eve Hewson, Jack Reynor and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, has been shown on Apple TV+ since September 29th and has received a few quotes.
Another heavyweight, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro – produced by Martin Scorsese, among others – hits screens on November 22nd and on Netflix on December 20th. The feature film about Leonard Bernstein, on which Yannick Nézet-Séguin worked as a consultant, is sure to take a very respectable place in the upcoming awards season.
Also on the most popular platform, Nyad, based on the inspiring life of the American swimmer, starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster, will be released in cinemas on October 20th before being released on Netflix on November 3rd. There’s no doubt that Todd Haynes’ May, December, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, which hits screens on November 17th and on Netflix on December 1st, will be well received, while Fair Play, currently in cinemas and on Netflix, just as well received as the excellent animated films Nimona from Netflix will continue to be a topic of conversation.