In March, AppleTV+ became the first streaming service to win Best Picture after its film CODA won first prize at the Oscars. Now that the seal is broken, only one question remains: which streaming service will be next to achieve this lofty goal?
Maybe it will be netflix. After a disastrous first quarter of 2022, the Los Gatos team could use a victory, and they could well get one with Bardo, false chronicle of a handful of truths. This long title belongs to Alejandro González IñarrituNetflix’s next feature, which Netflix has acquired for an undisclosed sum.
There are no sure bets in the Best Picture race, but Iñárritu comes as close as it gets. The Mexican director’s films won the prestigious award in 2014 (birdman) and 2015 (The ghost), making him the first filmmaker since 1950 to win Best Picture two years in a row. bardo will be his first feature film since; according to Deadlinethe film will wrap in the fall and arrive on Netflix and in theaters “at the end of the year.”
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bardo, billed as a comedy, will follow a Mexican journalist who faces an existential crisis after returning home. Like Iñárritu’s other films, this one will feature ambitious and technically brilliant cinematography. The filmmaker is committed Darius Khonjiwho has worked with everyone from Bernando Bertolucci to Danny Boyle to Bong Joon-ho to direct bardophotography.
“Alejandro is one of the greatest modern filmmakers and one of the greatest visionaries in our industry,” said Scott Stuber, director of Global Film at Netflix. “bardo is a cinematic experience that inspired us to create a release strategy designed for the film to penetrate the culture in the widest and widest way.
For the love of Netflix, I hope bardo is as good as Stuber claims, because the streamer could really use the positive press. Its Q1 2022 earnings report was nothing short of disastrous — instead of gaining 2.5 million subscribers in the quarter, as it had expected, it lost 200,000. its first net loss of subscribers in more than a decade, and its shares lost a quarter of their value.
Netflix said it was considering an ad-supported subscription option as a way to reverse its downward trend, but improving the quality of its content could also provide a big boost. Following the company’s first-quarter results, some observers have suggested that Netflix’s move toward crowd-pleasing crowd pleasers and ridiculous reality shows could convince some customers to drop their subscriptions. So even if bardo doesn’t win Best Picture in 2023, it could still be valuable content as long as it’s critically acclaimed and commercially successful. Considering Iñárritu’s background, it seems like a pretty safe bet.
