Director James Cameron has claimed that Netflix movies should not be considered for Oscars.
Cameron said this on the podcast The Town With Matthew Belloni, ahead of the upcoming release of his new film, Avatar: Fire And Ash on December 1.
After being asked by Belloni about his thoughts on the news that Netflix are to rival Comcast and Paramount for the purchase of Warner Bros, James Cameron stated that he hopes that Paramount have the successful bid, saying that "Netflix would be a disaster".
“[Netflix CEO Ted] Sarandos has gone on the record saying theatrical films are dead”, Cameron said, to which Belloni replied: “He’s now promising theatres if he buys Warner Bros".
Part of their proposal saw Netflix promising to continue releasing Warner Bros' movies in theatres.
“It’s sucker bait,” Cameron said, “‘We’ll put the movie out for a week or 10 days. We’ll qualify for Oscar consideration.’ See, I think that’s fundamentally rotten to the core. A movie should be made as a movie for theatrical, and the Academy Awards mean nothing to me if they don’t mean theatrical. I think they’ve been co-opted, and I think it’s horrific".
James Cameron insisted that Netflix films should not qualify for Oscars nominations, unless it was to change its release strategies and have movies shown in 2,000 theatres a month.
Fire And Ash, which is a sequel to The Way Of Water, is to receive its world premier at Hollywood's Dolby theatre on December 1, ahead of its release in the US and UK on December 19. It was also confirmed that two more sequels are too arrive in 2029 and 2031.
