Sunday night's telecast of the Oscars showed an industry unusually infatuated with itself and its own history, even by the standards of awards shows. The exercise in nostalgia betrayed an anxiety about cinema's digitally distributed future, with warmed-over Billy Crystal jokes about kids watching movies on phones bumping against a pretty funny Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow skit about a cutting-edge cinema verité short documentary called "The Presenter." "Come on, I've got to get this live on Netflix by midnight!" Downey joked.
But it's no joke. Thanks to Netflix's new exclusive licensing agreement with the Weinstein company, some of the biggest winners on Oscar night, including Best Picture and Best Director winner The Artist and Best Documentary winner Undefeated, will be available for streaming later this year on Netflix, and nowhere else.
Now, Netflix doesn't have exclusive rights to all Weinstein films – just documentaries, foreign-language films, and specialty titles. Most theatrical releases are covered by a 2008 agreement the Weinsteins made with Showtime. If Netflix had been able to get all of the studios' films, Oscar winners and nominees including The Iron Lady, My Week with Marilyn and last year's Best Picture winner The King's Speech would be on their way to Netflix, too.
Still, it's a partial (if still premature) vindication of Netflix's bold pursuit of exclusive agreements on digital content. On Sunday, GigaOm's Liz Miller noted that only two of the 15 Oscar-nominated films already available on iTunes or Amazon were available for Netflix streaming – both documentaries.
Exclusive rights to a Best Picture winner could give Netflix legs later this year — legs it will need as Starz's premium content vansishes from its catalog. It's also a sign that (as Reed Hastings' recent Vanity Fair interview makes clear) Netflix is increasingly a key part and partner of Hollywood, not just a disruptive, external force.
Streaming a throwback silent film about the early days of cinema to your Xbox is just part and parcel of cinema's new order. A key portion of the audience is actually more adventurous than ever in pursuit of great movie experiences, wherever and however it finds them.
Update: In an blog post titled "And The Oscar Goes To… Netflix!", Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos points out that Martin Scorsese's multiple-Oscar-winning Hugo and Best Animated Feature Rango will also be coming to Netflix later this year.
What's more, writes Sarandos, under the terms of Netflix's agreement with the Weinsteins, The Artist "will make its debut on Netflix and not be available on any premium pay TV services in the U.S."
