Colin Farrell Gambles on His Redemption in 'Ballad of a Small Player's Trailer

Awards season is the best time of year for movie buffs, as all of the studios put forth their best films over the autumn months in hopes of landing recognition at the Oscars, and all the smaller events that lead up to it. However, two studios have yet to claim the biggest prize of Best Picture. The most glaring example is Amazon, which has landed multiple nominations (and won Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor) for Manchester by the Sea, but failed to secure the top prize; it is also the only streaming service never to take home Best Drama at the Emmys. The other Netflix, which has landed wins for Best Director for Roma and The Power of the Dog, but also did not capture the final statue.

Netflix has been working on conquering the Awards circuit since 2015, landing its first success with Mudbound in 2018, and it is gearing up for 2025 with a slate that includes an obvious contender, Ballad of a Small Player, starring Academy favorite Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin). It's far from the only awards contender viewers will see from the streaming service; Netflix no longer puts all its eggs in one basket that way. However, it is one they clearly expect to do well, to the point that it will receive a full two-week run in theaters before moving to streaming, rather than the standard one.

Netflix still has an uphill battle; the film industry has been resistant to awarding it Best Picture, especially since Netflix treats the theatrical release as an irritating hoop it must jump through to qualify, rather than the place where films belong. But the one-two punch of the pandemic and the strike, not to mention the slow collapse of studios like Paramount and Warner Bros, had made the mid-2020s ripe for the picking, and Netflix is hoping this is the year it finally strikes gold.