To be certain, Netflix has had many successes, but when it comes to the Oscars, they have yet to break through the way Amazon did this year with “Manchester By The Sea.” Simply put, the book seller turned content provider not only has a great taste, but they have a wealth of industry experience at their executive level, and moreover, aren’t seen as disrupters to the status quo. Certainly, Netflix has earned Oscar attention on the documentary front — “The Square,” “Virunga,” “What Happened, Miss Simone?,” “Winter On Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom,” and “13th” have all be nominated — but the shinier recognition of Best Picture eludes them. Their campaign for “Beasts Of No Nation” went nowhere last year, but in 2017 they’ll try again with another big title.
Netflix walked away from Park City with one of the biggest deals at the Sundance Film Festival, picking up the hotly buzzed and very well received “Mudbound” (read our review) for $12.5 million. Starring Carey Mulligan, Jason Clarke, Jason Mitchell, Mary J. Blige, Rob Morgan, Garrett Hedlund, and Jonathan Banks, the Dee Rees (“Pariah,” “Bessie“) directed movie follows two families through the racially charged, post-WWII South.
READ MORE: Full 2017 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners List
The critical and audience reception to the movie was huge in Park City, and the title quickly became one of the sought after movies. It was reported that A24, Annapurna, Fox Searchlight, and Focus Features were all looking at the picture, but Netflix has won out. The question remains, however, can they go the distance?
One of the issues that has long dogged Netflix, at least inside the industry, has been their commitment to day-and-date launches, opening movies in (very) limited release and on their streaming service simultaneously. This has been seen as a radical reinvention of tradition, particularly for awards season fare, where every other studio continues to doggedly follow the platform rollout approach. It’ll be interesting see how Netflix approaches the release of “Mudbound” and their campaign for the picture, but they have quite a few months ahead to sort that out. But let their be no doubt that Netflix, for all their success, also wants to be recognized by the colleagues too. We’ll se if they can pull it off. [Deadline]