According to an exclusive report in Variety, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences warning that if the Academy alters its rules so that movies premiering on Netflix and other streaming services would not be eligible for Academy Awards, the Academy could violate anti-trust laws.
The letter obtained by Variety was written by Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, to AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson on March 21.
It stated, “In the event that the Academy — an association that includes multiple competitors in its membership — establishes certain eligibility requirements for the Oscars that eliminate competition without procompetitive justification, such conduct may raise antitrust concerns.” The letter added that if the Academy altered its rules to exclude movies debuting on streaming services from an opportunity to win Oscars, it could violate the Sherman Act. The letter stated: “If the Academy adopts a new rule to exclude certain types of films, such as films distributed via online streaming services, from eligibility for the Oscars, and that exclusion tends to diminish the excluded films’ sales, that rule could therefore violate Section 1.”
Variety reported that an Academy spokesperson stated, “We’ve received a letter from the Dept. of Justice and have responded accordingly. The Academy’s Board of Governors will meet on April 23 for its annual awards rules meeting, where all branches submit possible updates for consideration.”
The Verge noted:
Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and other streaming service providers have for years now been edging their way into traditional Hollywood awards shows, winning Oscars and Emmys for a variety of programming as the budgets, big-name talent, and subsequent quality of these shows and movies has drastically increased. But Netflix, more so than other streaming services, has typically done only limited theatrical runs for its films to meet award eligibility requirements.
After Alfonso Cuaron’s Netflix production “Roma” won Oscars for best director, best cinematography and best foreign-language film, Detlef Rossmann, president of the art house cinema association CICAE, told The Hollywood Reporter, ““We consider giving three awards to Roma a devaluation of the Oscars.” CICAE released a statement urging the Academy to “redefine the Oscar nomination rules and terms to clarify the difference between film and television.”
Much of the impetus for making a change to the Academy’s rules has come from director Steven Spielberg, who told ITV News in March 2018, ““I don’t believe that films that are given token qualifications, in a couple of theaters for less than a week, should qualify for Academy Award nominations. Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie. If it’s a good show, you deserve an Emmy. But not an Oscar.”
In February 2019, as The Daily Wire reported, Spielberg took another shot at streaming services. Variety noted that Spielberg, accepting the Filmmaker Award at the Cinema Audio Society’s CAS Awards, asserted:
I hope all of us really continue to believe that the greatest contributions we can make as filmmakers is to give audiences the motion picture theatrical experience. I’m a firm believer that movie theaters need to be around forever … I love television. I love the opportunity. Some of the greatest writing being done today is for television, some of the best directing for television, some of the best performances [are] on television today. The sound is better in homes more than it ever has been in history but there’s nothing like going to a big dark theater with people you’ve never met before and having the experience wash over you. That’s something we all truly believe in.
Netflix tweeted a response in early March, “We love cinema. Here are some things we also love. Access for people who can’t always afford, or live in towns without, theaters. Letting everyone, everywhere enjoy releases at the same time. Giving filmmakers more ways to share art. These things are not mutually exclusive.”