With binge-worth programs like Stranger Things, The Crown, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Netflix is killing it on the television front. When it comes to their movies, though, the streaming service has been hit and miss to say the least. Bright, The Cloverfield Paradox, and most of Adam Sandler’s Netflix contributions were panned by critics. Of course not every Netflix Original Movie has been a critical dud. Dee Rees’ Mudbound received multiple Academy Award nominations and Icarus even won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. However, there’s a notable director who isn’t thrilled with Netflix’s recent breakthrough at film awards: Steven Spielberg.

Talking to ITV News about his latest film, Ready Player One, Spielberg argued that there’s a fine line between movies and TV movies. “Once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie,” the director said. “You certainly, if it’s a good show, deserve an Emmy, but not an Oscar. I don’t believe films that are just given token qualifications in a couple of theaters for less than a week should qualify for the Academy Award nomination.”

Spielberg isn’t the first filmmaker to take issue with Netflix. Christopher Nolan, who earned his first Best Director nomination for Dunkirk, previously told IndieWire, “Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films.”

To be fair, a few Netflix movies technically got theatrical releases. Mudbound, for example, was screened for one week in New York and Los Angeles. Many audiences would also argue that a film’s quality should take precedence over how it got distributed or whether it actually played in a theater. What if The Shape of Water had been picked up by Netflix? Would it have been any less Best Picture worthy if it had been exclusively released on a streaming service?

That being said, Spielberg may be on to something with Netflix movies competing for the Emmys instead. There are a few great Netflix movies that got no love from the Oscars, i.e. Beasts of No Nation and Okja. Chances are they would’ve been frontrunners at the Primetime Emmys, however, what with Outstanding Television Movie typically being one of the weaker categories. Recent nominees like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and The Wizard of Lies, while not poorly received, weren’t considered anything groundbreaking. Netflix’s San Junipero episode of Black Mirror was viewed as the clear standout and had no trouble walking away with the award last year. If Mudbound was in the race, though, it likely would’ve been a closer call.

Granted, some believe that winning an Emmy isn’t at “prestigious” as winning an Oscar. Then again, we’re currently in a golden age of television with A-list talent flocking to Netflix. Meanwhile, March 2018 was an especially disappointing month for new movie releases, at least in terms of box office revenue. Suddenly, competing for an Emmy is starting to sound like the real definition of going for the gold

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