Jeff Bezos, CEO of technology group Amazon, has declared high ambitions for his company’s nascent film studio. “We want to win an Oscar,” he told Die Welt. “Amazon has already won Golden Globes and Emmys. Our current target is to produce 16 home movies a year.”
Investment in original content at Amazon has increased over the past couple of years with impressive returns. As well as high-profile series such as Transparent (which has won five Emmys), Amazon has recently signed on directors who traditionally concentrate on the big screen. Ridley Scott produced controversial series The Man in the High Castle, while Woody Allen last year agreed to make a six-part TV show for the outfit – though at Cannes in May, the director called his decision to do so “a catastrophic mistake”.
December saw the US release – both in cinemas and streaming online – of Amazon’s first major feature film: Chi-Raq, a gang violence satire by Spike Lee. The end-of-year scheduling is a direct attempt to position the film as an awards contender.
In the interview, Bezos alluded to the reputation Amazon – as well as Netflix – has swiftly earned within the industry as an employer who grants greater creative leeway to film-makers than traditional studios.
“I want to offer masters like Spike Lee or Woody Allen a new platform,” he said. With such experts behind the cameras, Bezos continued, it only makes sense to “grant a lot of freedom”.
Chi-Raq has won rave reviews, as has Netflix’s Beasts of No Nation, which stars Idris Elba as the ferocious leader of a gang of child soldiers in an African country ravaged by civil war. But there are fears that the unconventional distribution models of both movies may count against them with traditional Oscar voters. The fact that both films also tackle black issues may also factor against them, despite recent efforts by the Academy to broaden its demographic.
Other innovations discussed by Bezos in the interview include space flight company Blue Origin and the introduction of drones to deliver goods ordered on Amazon through a service called Prime Air.
He also expressed an eagerness to investigate the viability of Amazon streaming events such as the World Cup. “It is not impossible,” he said. “Sport is an interesting area.”
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