You are reading a preview of The Ankler, a newsletter about the business of Hollywood by Richard Rushfield.
Whither Oscars?
On Tuesday, AMPAS did what AMPAS has been dying to do: bring Netflix fully into the fold. Push aside its legacy membership, the keepers of Hollywood history.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
The Ankler opens its first essay competition now with the challenge: $8.99 for anyone who can explain in clear terms why AMPAS should not merge with the TV academy? What exactly is the difference between these two celebrants of streaming video?
Today, the Academy of Motion Pictures abandoned the position that the cinematic experience was a unique form, to be celebrated and protected—and the Board of Governors signed off on that.
There is a crisis afoot, but I can think of about a hundred other ways to address that then by abandoning the medium you were created to celebrate. Major League Baseball, for instance, isn’t saying, if we can’t play baseball games in stadiums, how about we get a few chefs together and make the World Series a Quickfire Challenge!
The next beat, I continue to predict, will be moving the show kit and caboodle to The Service and letting them take full custody of it. Given this change, given the falling ratings, given what this year is going to be like, how long is ABC/Disney really going to feel that the Oscar headache is indispensable to its brand? The Board of Governors just showed that the range of what they will go along with is far broader than anyone could have imagined.
This will, of course, never be undone. Never in a million years after COVID and beyond.
However, The Service might not want to count their trophies quite so soon. You’ll recall way back a year ago that the fix was in as in could be for The Irishman to waltz up to accept its prize, but somehow, nobody made it clear to the voters what the deal-e-o was. Some would say they might have even resented the attempt to redefine the medium under their feet.
The pickings will be slimmer this year, but we’ll see where resentment stands on Oscar night, wherever it may be.
Addendum: It’s interesting to note, when one considers the reach of Netflix’s sway these days, that a full 20 of the 55 AMPAS Govs, by my perfunctory eyeballing, have worked on or been connected to productions of The Service in just the past couple years.
Which is not to say that anyone’s necessarily in the tank for Netflix. Lots of these people have lots of projects alive at lots of places. But then again, I’ve never known many people in Hollywood looking to close off options for themselves. If there’s 20 Governors who have gotten Netflix checks lately, then there’s 35 wondering when they are going to get theirs.
You can take this list as a fair sample of what swath of the industry falls under the Netflix umbrella these days. But then, that too is no case for any member of the Board to want to get on their wrong side.
Anyway, you’ve got to have friends, and a few years into its Drunken Sailor Era (DSE), The Service has bought drinks for many, many friends. Here’s my probably incomplete list of the Governors and their recent Netflix projects:
President David Rubin: Casting Director, Pieces of Her
Vice President Larry Karaszewski: Writer, Dolemite is My Name, Shoe Dog (in development)
Treasurer Mark Johnson: Producer, El Camino
Laura Dern: Actress, Marriage Story
Ellen Kuras: DP, Rolling Thunder
Ruth E. Carter: Costume Design, Dolemite is My Name
Isis Mussenden: Costume Design, Velvet Buzzsaw
Susanne Bier: Director, Bird Box
Roger Ross Williams: Director, The Innocence Files (in development)
Jim Gianopulos: Executive, Many films unloaded on Netflix
David Linde: Executive, Partner on Roma, The King
Dody Dorn: Editor, Army of the Dead (in post)
Michael Tronik: Editor, Bright
Howard Berger: Make-up Dept Head, Spenser Confidential
Albert Berger: Producer, Untitled Alexander Payne Film (in development)
Jan Pascale: Set Decorator, Mank (in post), Velvet Buzzsaw
Scott Millan: Supervising Sound Editor, The Other Side of the Wind
John Knoll: Additional Visual Effects Supervisor, 6 Underground
Eric Roth: Producer, Mank
Janet Yang: Executive Producer, Over the Moon
This has been a preview of today’s edition of The Ankler, the industry’s secret newsletter. To read it all, subscribe today for just $10 a month.
ALSO IN TODAY’S EDITION:
WHITHER THE TRADES!?
WHITHER THE BIG AGENCIES?!
WHITHER THE WGA!?
WHITHER MOVIE THEATERS?!
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