The 94th Academy Awards, scheduled for March 27 on ABC, will once again amount to a battle between Old Hollywood and New Hollywood.
In one corner: Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”), Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”) and Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), whose films arrived exclusively in theaters. With the coronavirus still keeping many ticket buyers at bay, it turned out to be box office suicide. But the directors scored points among Hollywood traditionalists for maintaining the big-screen nature of cinema. “West Side Story,” “Belfast” and “Licorice Pizza” are widely expected to receive nominations for best picture.
In the opposing corner: almost everybody else. Vying for the seven remaining best picture slots are Netflix movies (“The Power of the Dog,” “Don’t Look Up,” “Tick, Tick … Boom!”), Apple TV+ offerings (“CODA,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth”), an Amazon Prime Video effort (“Being the Ricardos”) and two films released simultaneously on HBO Max and in theaters (“Dune,” “King Richard”).
Despite exceedingly positive reviews and $1.8 billion in global ticket sales, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is unlikely to pick up a best picture nomination, according to awards handicappers. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has increasingly snubbed films that actually fill seats.
No streaming service has ever won a best picture Oscar; despite inroads, the traditional studios have fended them off. (Last year’s winner, “Nomadland” from Searchlight Pictures, was mostly seen on Hulu, but only because most theaters were closed.) Streaming companies are now in the dominant position, in part because the pandemic accelerated a consumer shift away from theaters. The economics of streaming also make it easier to spend freely in pursuit of Oscars.
A hard-campaigning Netflix received its first best picture nomination in 2019 (“Roma”). It got two in 2020 (“Marriage Story,” “The Irishman”) and another two in 2021 (“Mank” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7”). If Netflix places three films in the race this year, it would put the company on par with Miramax in its heyday.
Netflix is not the only insurgent. Apple TV+ has come on strong, for instance, with “CODA,” a romantic drama about the only hearing member of a deaf family, and the black-and-white “Tragedy of Macbeth” each poised to receive multiple nominations. Apple TV+ only started competing at the Oscars last year, when it got two nominations in low-profile categories (and lost).
