Netflix has become an object of growing unease in the film industry. A recent protest at the Berlin Film Festival and a standoff with Cannes’ film festival over release rules for Roma betrayed the film industry’s wariness of the streaming platform. For some, Netflix’s entry into cinema – with productions like Roma and Bird Box – represents the medium’s slow death march.
For others, the Netflix backlash signals a cultural elitism voiced by rigid cinephiles. Following Sunday’s Oscars ceremony, Richard E. Grant suggested The Academy didn’t award Roma best picture because of its resistance to Netflix. The effect that Netflix’s involvement had on Roma’s Oscar chances remains speculative (unpacking Academy politics is a subject for a whole other article), but the industry’s relationship with the screening platform has become undoubtedly tense.
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