Netflix will storm into Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony boasting more nominations than any other movie distributor, but can the streaming service finally take home the film industry's most coveted prize?
Netflix's Mafia epic The Irishman has a shot at the best picture Oscar, according to awards experts, but faces tough competition from Warner Bros' World War One drama 1917, Sony Corp's Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and South Korean genre-bending movie Parasite from privately held company Neon.
Winning the best picture statuette for the first time would burnish Netflix’s reputation in the film business and give it new bragging rights in the increasingly competitive fight for streaming video viewers.
The decades-spanning Irishman, playing in theatres and streaming on Netflix, features an A-list creative team of previous Oscar winners. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, and was among the company's most expensive films to date with a production budget of roughly $160 million. Critics raved after the film was released in November.
Whether it is named the year's best picture is up to the roughly 8,000 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Experts surveyed by awards website Gold Derby as of Monday favoured 1917, giving it 11-2 odds to win, while Irishman stood at 17-2. Irishman landed few of the top awards from groups such as the Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild of America, the usual tipoffs to the best picture favourites.
"The fact they have not won any of the major precursor awards is notable," said Scott Feinberg, awards columnist for The Hollywood Reporter. "This doesn't mean they won't be competitive in other categories." Netflix scored 24 nominations overall, including for Klaus and I Lost My Body in the animated feature category, and two feature-length documentaries. —HT
