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Netflix movies don't deserve Oscars, says Steven Spielberg

Movies made by Netflix and other streaming services don’t deserve to get Oscars, Steven Spielberg has said.

The Hollywood icon behind countless hits from Jaws to Jurassic Park reckons that just because some movies from streaming studios get a brief theatrical release, it doesn’t mean that they’re not still ‘TV movies’.

“I don’t believe that films that are just given token qualifications, in a couple of theaters for less than a week, should qualify for the Academy Award nominations,” he told ITV News.

“Fewer and fewer filmmakers are going to struggle to raise money, or to compete at Sundance and possibly get one of the specialty labels to release their films theatrically.

“And more of them are going to let the SVOD [Streaming Video On-Demand] businesses finance their films, maybe with the promise of a slight, one-week theatrical window to qualify for awards.

“But, in fact, once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie.”

He added that such movies might ‘deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar’.

This year’s Oscars saw movies like Netflix’s Mudbound and Okja up for awards, having secured theatrical releases as well as their streaming release.

Meanwhile, Amazon Studios produced Manchester By The Sea, which saw Casey Affleck winning Best Actor for his performance at the 2017 Oscars.

Amazon also produced The Salesman, which won best foreign language film the same year.

Spielberg, meanwhile, has scored himself three Oscars for his theatrically distributed movies; Best Director and Best Picture for Schindler’s List and another Best Director for Saving Private Ryan.

His latest movie, Ready Player One, is out across the UK on March 29.

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