This is not the documentary renaissance we hoped for. Despite its 2023 Oscar win for “Navalny,” CNN pulled back on non-fiction production. Non-fiction programming at Showtime Networks, which produced Oscar-nominated “Attica” in 2022, is no more.
“The New York Times Presents” series, which produced titles like “The Killing of Breonna Taylor” and “Framing Britney Spears,” is being phased out in favor of integrating non-fiction video into the media brand. Hot Docs is on the ropes; Participant, which produced documentaries like “An Inconvenient Truth,” “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” and “American Factory,” closed last month.
And then there’s Netflix, which is still very much in the documentary game under Adam Del Deo, Netflix VP of original documentary films and limited series — and can afford to be with nearly 270 million global subscribers. However, it’s a specific sort of gameplay: For tight, high-quality nonfiction work that’s heartwarming, or thrilling, or stars a celebrity, or centers on true crime, Netflix will pay top dollar. Issue-based films that center on harder messages, like Yance Ford’s “Power,” aren’t impossible at Netflix, but they’re rarer.
Netflix came to Sundance 2024 with “The Greatest Night in Pop” and then went on a documentary spree, picking up “Ibelin,” from Norwegian “The Painter and the Thief” director Benjamin Ree, about the online life of “World of Warcraft” player Mats Steen, who died at age 25 in 2014 from a degenerative genetic condition; Jeff Zimbalist’s “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” about a couple from Moscow who perform acrobatic feats while climbing super-skyscrapers; and “Daughters,” a tearjerker about four young girls attending a Daddy-Daughter Dance with their imprisoned fathers. In a competitive auction, it also bought Josh Greenbaum’s “Will & Harper,” a cross-country road saga with producer Will Ferrell and his close friend of 30 years, comedy writer Harper Steele, who was coming out as a trans woman.
At last month’s San Francisco International Film Festival, Netflix premiered “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” Lucy Walker’s celebration of the only woman to achieve 10 Everest summits. An early cut of the crowdpleaser played well at Toronto 2023, where Netflix scooped up worldwide rights. “Mountain Queen” hits Netflix July 31.
“Mountain Queen,” like “The Greatest Night in Pop,” was acquired as a work in progress that had the filmmakers work with Del Deo and his team on crafting tighter edits. For “Greatest Night,” Del Deo said they wanted “to play the moments out and see the relationships between the most well-known pop artists in the world.” Walker’s film was 111 minutes at TIFF; at SFIFF, it clocked at 98.
Del Deo acknowledged that for Netflix, the strong documentary market is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. “That demand has grown over the past decade, driven in large part by the focus Netflix has had in this space,” he said. “The signal that I would reference is Sundance, for the titles that we acquired, it did feel like they were competitive. For those films that people feel are must-have, there is a market.”
He cited the 2024 festival’s “remarkable movies”: “Think of the visceral ride that ‘Skywalkers’ brought to audiences there, of all the conversation around ‘Will & Harper,’” he said. “We felt that that the trip they took across America was revelatory in terms of understanding the world of trans issues today. It was unique, fresh, and well made.”
As for “Daughters,” “it was one of the most emotional films that I’ve ever seen,” said Del Deo. “That’s about people feeling deeply. You just know that your audience is going to respond to that. We were competitive in the marketplace. But that changes year to year. In some years, the pace is very different.”
And when it’s “different,” Del Deo is under no pressure to meet a target. “We have no set number of titles that we need to have every year,” he said. “[Sundance 2023] was a slower year. It wasn’t a very active festival.”
Del Deo rose in the Netflix ranks over the past decade. Working with nonfiction content chief Lisa Nishimura (who left Netflix in March 2023), they acquired “The Square,” which landed Netflix’s first Oscar nomination, followed with a second for pickup “Virunga. They commissioned one of the streamer’s first documentaries, Liz Garbus’ “What Happened, Miss Simone?,” which also landed a nomination. Eight more Oscar nominations followed, among them three wins (“Icarus,” “American Factory,” and “My Octopus Teacher”).
However, Netflix documentaries had global breakthrough in 2016 with another commissioned film, “Amanda Knox” that featured the accused murderer, now exonerated, tell the camera: “Either I’m a psychopath in sheep’s clothing … or I am you.”
“That was a big moment,” said Del Deo. “Listen, what we what we learned is that great storytelling on our platform can really transcend. There’s other examples of that. With films that bring best-in-class storytelling, we could deliver these cultural moments and series that people are talking about.”
Del Deo said he strived to make films or series on important topics more entertaining. That meant curating filmmakers and key crew, often from outside the documentary community. “We also work with the best cinematographers, composers and editors,” he said. “Angus Wall had won the Academy Award for Best Editor for ‘The Social Network.’ We tried to persuade him to work in the doc space. It took us quite a while. We were able to get him to come on board to help with ‘Winter on Fire.’”
Director Evgeny Afineevsky had a huge amount of footage; working with Wall and Del Deo’s team it became a coherent and dramatic narrative. “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” was invited to the Venice, Telluride, and Toronto festivals and eventually landed an Oscar nomination.
Wall also participated in designing the breakout true crime series “Making a Murderer.” “We thought that we could deliver something that could have the cultural impact of a big scripted series like ‘True Detective,’” said Del Deo. “We were on the cover of People magazine, it was everywhere. That’s where we knew that by bringing in skilled crew people to help enhance the entertainment value of the documentaries, we could deliver projects worldwide that could spark these global conversations and huge audiences.”
Del Deo also cited Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” the first documentary to open The New York Film Festival, as another close collaboration. “She was telling a story about the privatization of the prison system and how that drove incarceration rates exponentially, especially amongst Brown and Black people,” said Del Deo. “She took an important issue, and she innovated a visual language, brought an incredible score, and made that a must-see film. We supported her in making a film that could be broader and more entertaining.”
Netflix also leaves room for commissioning an issue-driven film like Yance Ford’s “Power,” citing the “diversity” of its members “and their tastes and moods,” Del Deo said.
“We want to program titles that our members as a whole are going to love,” he said. “Some of those are going to be biopics, some of the content is going to be in the true crime space. And some is going to be in sports. There are also members that like films that are about topics that are important to them. That may not be the biggest audience, but we want to also be able to deliver those titles as well. So it’s really about variety.”
Netflix commissions could be movies or series, and the format may evolve with projects’ development. Filmmakers don’t always agree with Netflix’s notes.
“It’s great to have the documentary team together debate, what is the right story, the amount of story?” Del Deo said. “Creators sometimes know that they have a strong instinct about stories they want to tell and sometimes it takes a bit of time for them to get clarity on what’s the best format. How many episodes? What the best tone is? And that’s something, to have that freedom to be able to explore what is the best version, because ultimately, we’re trying to optimize and unlock the best creative vision for what it is they’re making.”
Fisher Stevens’ “Beckham,” for example, was originally intended as a three-part series. “Fisher was coming toward the end of the process and said, ‘God, I feel like there’s more that we could tell,’” said Del Deo. “Normally, we would say, ‘Hey, we think you’re doing great.’ But when he showed us what he wanted to do, it was a quick conversation to, ‘Let’s extend this out to a fourth episode.’ And our members love it.”
Another big series hit was Garbus’ 2022 “Harry & Meghan.” “We know her ability to tell incredible stories in such a cinematic way,” said Del Deo. “It was a title that was watched all around the world, the title that people talked about, and it definitely created a cultural moment.”
As for Netflix’s reported $100-million 2020 deal with the royal couple, so far the streamer has released three docu-series: “Harry & Meghan,” “The Heart of Invictus,” and “Live to Lead.” Del Deo said other projects are in development.
