“Roma”Netflix
Netflix has a contentious history with film festivals, but the streaming service has been welcomed with open arms to this year’s Venice Film Festival, which begins on Wednesday. It will premiere six films at the fest.
The films hail from respected and Oscar-winning filmmakers like Alfonso Cuarón and the Coen Brothers. In fact, Netflix no doubt has its sights on the Oscars this year: you don’t finance films from such directors and premiere them at Venice if you’re not thinking about awards season.
While the streamer’s “Icarus” won best documentary this year (Netflix’s only Oscar win so far), Netflix and the Oscars have been a controversial topic in the past. Director Steven Spielberg proclaimed that Netflix films deserve Emmys, not Oscars, because “once you commit to a television format, you’re a TV movie.” Netflix also pulled out of the Cannes Film Festival after it introduced a rule change, in which any film without a theatrical distribution in France would be disqualified from competition.
But Venice has rejuvenated Netflix’s Oscar hopes, and the Toronto International Film Festival next month will show seven Netflix films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
We’ve rounded up the six Netflix films showing at Venice below (Most don’t have official release dates yet, but are all expected to arrive on Netflix later this year):
“Roma”
Director: Alfonso Cuarón (“Gravity,” “Children of Men,” “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”)
Netflix description: “A story that chronicles a tumultuous year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s.”
Cuarón won the Oscar for best director in 2014 for “Gravity,” and also shared a best film editing win for the same film. He’s been nominated for two screenplay Oscars for “Children of Men” and “Y Tu Mamá También.” He was nominated for best film editing for “Children of Men.”
Watch the trailer here.
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen (“Hail, Caesar!,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “True Grit,” “No Country for Old Men”)
Netflix description: “Saddle up for six tales about the American frontier from the unique minds of Joel and Ethan Coen, who wrote and directed this anthology.”
The Coen Brothers have been nominated for screenplay Oscars for a number of films, including “True Grit” and “A Serious Man.” They won for best original screenplay for “Fargo” and best adapted screenplay for “No Country for Old Men,” in which they also won Oscars for directing and best picture.
“On My Skin”
Director: Alessio Cremonini (“Border”)
Status: Coming to Netflix September 12
Netflix description: “Arrested in Rome for a drug-related offense, Stefano Cucchi endures a harrowing week in custody that changes his family forever. Based on true events.”
Watch the trailer here.
“The Other Side of the Wind”
“Citizen Kane”RKO Pictures
Director: Orson Welles (“Citizen Kane”)
Netflix description: “A completion and restoration of Orson Welles’s unfinished film, this satire follows the final days of a legendary director striving for a comeback.”
Welles won the best original screenplay Oscar for “Citizen Kane,” which is widely regarded as one of the best films of all time. He also won an honorary Oscar in 1971.
“They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead”
Morgan NevilleCraig Barritt/Getty Images
Director: Morgan Neville (“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “20 Feet From Stardom”)
Netflix description: “In the final fifteen years of the life of legendary director Orson Welles he pins his Hollywood comeback hopes on a film, The Other Side of the Wind, in itself a film about an aging film director trying to finish his last great movie.”
Neville won the Oscar for best documentary for “20 Feet From Stardom” in 2014.
“22 July”
Paul GreengrassKevin Winter/Getty
Director: Paul Greengrass (“Jason Bourne,” “Captain Phillips,” “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “United 93,” “The Bourne Supremacy”)
Netflix description: “After a far-right zealot launches a shocking attack in Norway, survivors — and the country — rally for healing and justice. Based on true events.”
Greengrass was nominated for best director in 2007 for “United 93.”
