Twitter

Where to Stream:

Beasts of No Nation

Last fall, Cary Fukunaga‘s incredible film Beasts of No Nation was thought to be a dark horse contender for the Oscar race. Its one big weakness? It wasn’t coming out of a trendy art house studio like Fox Searchlight or A24. Instead, it was the first full-length feature film from Netflix. When the 2016 Oscar nominations were announced, Beasts of No Nation was indeed shut out — including one major snub for Best Supporting Actor contender Idris Elba. The actor had scooped up the SAG Award and been nominated in almost every other major awards race.
This morning, WNYC released the latest episode of Alec Baldwin‘s podcast “Here’s the Thing.” Fukunaga was a guest and when the conversation turned to Beasts of No Nation, the auteur was candid when it came to blaming Netflix’s perceived lower status for his film’s botched Oscar campaign. The exchange starts around the 23 minute mark on the podcast:

Cary Fukunaga: “There’s a couple things going against us, which was not having a major studio with its sort of locked-in Oscar voters.”

Alec Baldwin: “Who released the film?”

CF: “Netflix released the film. Having Netflix as a perceived online-only game player.”

AB: “People thought it was a TV show?”

CF: “Thought it was a TV movie. I think, subject matter. I know most people would discover it once all the voting was done, and still, a bulk would never see it, ever. I think we thought it was a long shot.”

AB: “Did Netflix learn a lot from that experience, about how they are going to do it differently from now on? I hope so.”

CF: “We have yet to have a real follow up conversation.”

AB: “Would you like to?”

CF: “Yeah. “

After confirming that Netflix never really pow-wowed with him on the best way to market the film to Oscar voters, Fukunaga then explained to Baldwin that the way people watch movies is changing and the awards system hasn’t figured out how to catch up with that.
The bigger question, though, is can Netflix overcome these snobbish perceptions to become a major Hollywood player come awards season. At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the streaming service made headlines when it put in a $20 million bid on Nate Parker’s explosive Nat Turner biopic The Birth of a Nation. The film is already thought to be a major awards contender and Parker passed on Netflix’s deal. Instead, he went with Fox Searchlight’s $17.5 million offer. Why go for less money? Well, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Parker said, “It just felt like we were speaking the same language.” Apparently, Fox Searchlight was open to plans for showing the film in schools, but cynics would point out that Fox Searchlight was able to shepherd the controversial and racially-charged 12 Years A Slave to an Oscar win. Netflix has only nabbed Oscar nominations for its documentaries so far.
Right now, Netflix seems to be pivoting away from prestige films. The have deals with Adam Sandler to produce full-length sophomoric comedy fare and with Will Smith to tackle popcorn flicks. We’ll see if the conversation about streaming and Oscars can change in the upcoming year.
You can listen to the full episode of “Here’s The Thing” by clicking here, or by downloading the episode on iTunes.
[Watch Beasts of No Nation on Netflix]