Steven Spielberg Denies Rumors Of Campaign To Stop Netflix From Winning Oscars

Jurassic Park and E.T. director Steven Spielberg might not hate Netflix as much as everyone thinks.

The Academy Awards this year was covered in controversy for months leading up to the highly-anticipated ceremony, which went relatively smoothly in the end. Weeks after the event ended, controversy has still found its way to the iconic awards show.

Earlier this year, it was reported that Steven Spielberg was going to have a meeting with the members of the Academy to argue about Netflix’s Oscar qualifications and why they shouldn’t be eligible for the coveted Hollywood awards ceremony.

Jeffrey Katzenberg was recently visiting the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas and apparently revealed that these rumors circulating are absolutely false. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is what Katzenberg had to say about the Steven Spielberg Netflix controversy.

“I talked to Steven about this yesterday. I asked him very specifically — I don’t have any skin in this game anymore — he said, ‘I absolutely did not say that’. He actually said nothing.”

Katzenberg then revealed how the rumor started in the first place.

“What happened is a journalist was onto a story about this and had heard a rumor about Steven. They called a spokesperson to get a comment and honestly, just twisted it around. One, Steven didn’t say that, and two, he is not going to the academy in April with some sort of plan. But he has not opined at all, nor has he aligned with some specific thing.”

This year, Netflix was represented at the Academy Awards by Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma. The film was the first Netflix production to earn an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Although the film lost that award to the controversial film Green Book, it still managed to earn multiple Oscars including Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Foreign Language Film.

Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One did have some representation at the Academy Awards in the field for Best Visual Effects but lost to the Ryan Gosling-led Neil Armstrong biopic First Man.

We’ll be sure to keep you informed on any more updates regarding the story as soon as more information becomes available. Do you think Netflix films should be eligible for Oscars? Would you like to see Steven Spielberg team with the streaming service for a film in the future, much like Martin Scorsese? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter