Will Netflix make it to the Oscars with Mudbound?

Netflix has become a staple at awards ceremonies in the US, but has yet to break into the Oscars. Can Mudbound break the barrier?

As well as 91 nominations at this year’s Emmys, the streaming service has also notched up prizes at the Grammys and the Golden Globes.

But – other than in the documentary categories – the organisation hasn’t managed to make a splash at the Academy Awards.

That may be about to change with Mudbound.

The film is about two families – one black, one white – who live and work on land in rural Mississippi just after the Second World War, when racial tensions ran high.

Writer and director Dee Rees told Sky News the two families have more in common than they know.

"We see these families are like mirrors of each other in a way," she said.

"The two boys are connected together by this trauma, the two mothers are connected together by motherhood and by economic disempowerment – like the husbands are trying to tell them how to run the house and they’re disobeying them.

"I really wanted to have this dark symbiosis and the chance to have that from multiple perspectives is what really drew me in."

The film was picked up by Netflix after it received a standing ovation when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and has received awards buzz on its way round the festival circuit.

As well as being available on the streaming service from Friday, Mudbound will be shown at Curzon cinemas in the UK.

This could be a sign that the distributor wants the picture to be in contention for awards that only consider movies which have had a theatrical release.

Rees is no stranger to accolades – her first film Pariah saw her named best breakthrough director at Sundance 2011 and win the audience award at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Getting a nod from the Academy would maker her only the fifth woman ever to be nominated for best director – and the first black women to ever enter the race.

"In terms of acknowledgement and recognition, I hope it for the cast because I feel like this is an amazing ensemble and everybody sacrificed and worked hard to be there," she told us.

"I just want to keep my eyes focused on the work and just understanding that even though I could potentially be the first, knowing that there could have been many other firsts," she added.

The film features impressive performances from Carey Mulligan, Jason Mitchell and Jason Clarke, and is also a first feature role for singer Mary J Blige – who has been well received by critics.

Blige, who was going through a divorce while filming her part as Florence, told Sky News that being on set was "amazing".

"It was a great experience all around, for my personal life, just everything," she said.

"Dee has a way of working with people where if you’re not feeling good about what you’re doing you will feel good about what you’re doing.

"She took her time with me, she had patience, and she blessed me with some of the confidence I needed to bring Florence to life."

The film is hard to watch in places, but the issues it deals with seem prescient, and Rees admits she’s not surprised that so little has changed.

"I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. I grew up in the suburbs, but it was a poor, white suburb, so I saw people with confederate flag curtains and my dad told me that our next door neighbour was a Klan member," she said.

"He had a granddaughter and so, we’d play together all summer but I could never go to her house, she only came to my house, and when she had a birthday party I couldn’t come to her party so this is something as a child I was always very aware of," she explained.

"It’s not new, I think the awareness that a lot of the population is having about it is new, people just realising what’s always been there."

Sky News asked Rees and Blige if things were improving but neither of them thought so.

"No, it doesn’t look that way," Blige said, while Rees also thought there was plenty of work to be done.

"I think we’re really acknowledging who we really are right now."

(c) Sky News 2017: Will Netflix make it to the Oscars with Mudbound?