Martin Scorsese, Noah Baumbach, and More Bet on Netflix This Year—And It’s Paying Off

If you think Netflix is slipping in the 2020 awards race just because it didn’t win many Golden Globes, think again. For the third year in a row, the streaming giant broke its own record for Oscar nominations. This year, that number was 24 nominations, which was more than any other studio—and that includes the Disney empire, which came away with 23.

In 2019, the number was 15—ten for Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, and five for other films. In 2018, it was eight, with Dee Rees’s period drama Mudbound leading the charge. What’s especially impressive about this year’s 24 is not just that Netflix practically doubled its combined Oscar nominations from the year before, but that it was not just one centerpiece film doing the heavy lifting. Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman is responsible for ten nominations, while Marriage Story got six, and The Two Popes earned three. Then you have two Netflix films nominated for Best Documentary Feature (American Factory and The Edge of Democracy) and two Netflix films nominated for Best Animated Feature (I Lost My Body and Klaus).

It’s clear, at this point, that Netflix is not just a major player in the film industry—it’s the major player. And that’s especially true if you’re an established filmmaker who wants some awards love.

Perhaps The Irishman, which is Netflix’s best shot at Best Picture, would have fared just as this well had Scorsese released it with a traditional studio. The cast consists of legends (Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino) and Scorsese, of course, is considered by many to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. It’s worth noting, though, that his 2016 film, The Silence, was snubbed at the Oscars, receiving only a Best Cinematography nomination despite critical acclaim. But a Noah Baumbach film scoring nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Actress? Now that’s unusual.

Baumbach is undoubtedly a successful filmmaker. He’s one of this reporter’s personal favorite filmmakers. But he’s hardly an Oscar-bait filmmaker, which is why I’m not surprised he was passed over for directing this time around. His only other Oscar nomination—for 2005’s The Squid and the Whale—was for Best Original Screenplay. That’s more the kind of recognition you’d expect for a niche mumblecore comedy-drama about a privileged but broken family for which Baumbach is so well-known.

But with the power of Netflix behind it, now suddenly a mumblecore comedy-drama about a privileged but broken family is being watched by millions of Netflix subscribers. It’s being meme’d by millions of Netflix subscribers. It’s being subjected to the Twitter discourse by millions of Netflix subscribers.

The same could be said for Scorsese. Sure, the man has his diehards, but just how many other people would go to the theater for a three-and-a-half-hour mob epic? Or, in the case of I Lost My Body filmmaker Jérémy Clapin: What are the chances that his film, a truly weird French-language story about a severed hand, would reach anyone outside of the arthouse scene? Now the man has a New York Film Critics Circle award for 2019’s Best Animated Feature, an award that predicted the animated film Oscar winner for the last four years.

It’s not just about access, of course. It’s also about Netflix’s calculated, and expensive, award campaign. If the streaming service doubled down on its awards strategy in 2018—coming close to a Best Picture win for Roma—then it tripled down this year.

First, Netflix premiered its award contenders at the major fall film festivals, which are often a launchpad for awards nominations. Then it gave its Oscar hopefuls limited theatrical releases before releasing them on streaming, appeasing old-school Academy voters as well as meeting the eligibility requirement of a seven-day theatrical run in a Los Angeles County commercial theater. There were also plenty of special screenings to woo Academy members, including a screening of The Irishman at Broadway’s Belasco Theatre in New York City. And I would not be surprised if we start hearing about Irishman-themed gifts going out to Academy members in the coming weeks, mirroring the reported $40 to $60 million the company spent promoting Roma to the Academy last year.

This is not to say that nominations are a sure thing for filmmakers who do come to Netflix, even if they deliver great movies. Despite the above awards campaign strategy, there were still some Netflix missteps, most prominently Dolemite Is My Name, which was snubbed for acting for Eddie Murphy and costuming for Ruth Carter (Black Panther). Mati Diop’s feature debut, Atlantics, which expected to get a Best International Feature nod, was also overlooked. That the Golden Globes awarded its top prize to 1917 instead of The Irishman left some feeling that anti-streaming sentiment still pervades among old-school voters, and that’s no doubt a bias that some Academy voters are holding onto as well.

Still, many more filmmakers are following suit in 2020: David Fincher, Spike Lee, Charlie Kaufman, and other established directors are releasing their films with Netflix this year, several for the first time.

Of course, for non-established directors, as The Farewell‘s Lulu Wang pointed out in The Hollywood Reporter roundtable last week, it’s a different story. Wang, in fact, turned down an offer from Netflix that would have been double what A24 paid for her film.

“When you’re an established filmmaker, you are a brand that [Netflix] wants to partner with to help build their brand. But with newer filmmakers, newer voices, you don’t have a brand, you need to build that brand,” Wang said. “I know for a fact that if I took the bigger money, that they wouldn’t have the energy to put behind someone like me to build my brand when they have so many esteemed, established directors that are also part of the conversation.”

Wang’s point is well taken, and perhaps her film would not have gotten the support it needed to be a vital part of awards season, or win the Golden Globe for Awkwafina, as it did under A24. That said, The Farewell was totally shut out of Oscar nominations, in one of the bigger snubs of Monday morning.

Whether or not Netflix manages to snag that coveted Best Picture Oscar this year remains to be seen. But you can’t deny that many filmmakers who bet on Netflix in 2019 are reaping the rewards. And as their red carpet soundbites will tell you, it’s an honor just to be nominated.

Watch The Irishman on Netflix

Watch Marriage Story on Netflix

Watch The Two Popes on Netflix