Lisa Nishimura’s Netflix Exit Shook Documentary World: ‘She Helped Grow This Industry’

Netflix CEO Lisa Nishimura has backed some of the streamer’s biggest hits King of the Tigers, The Tinder scammer, The power of the dog, Make a killerAnd American factory – but in an era of corporate cost-cutting, it wasn’t enough to save her job.

Her impending departure as vice president of Independent Feature Film & Documentaries after 16 years at Netflix was a particular shock to the non-fiction film community, which had propelled Netflix into a dominant force in the documentary and feature film space, and in the process one of Netflix’s most visible leaders.

“Lisa was without a doubt one of the most influential people to popularize nonfiction,” said award-winning filmmaker Jeff Orlowski-Yang, director of Netflix documentaries. The social dilemma And Chasing coral. “She was a champion for documentaries and pushed them to the same level as written stories. She contributed enormously to the growth of this industry.”

Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney added, “I think Lisa is one of the smartest creative executives in Hollywood.”

Nishimura has endured several previous reorganizations, but the cold wind of austerity sweeping through the industry has enveloped her and co-VP of original independent film Ian Bricke. The chill wasn’t limited to Netflix — Vinnie Malhotra was fired as EVP of nonfiction programming at Showtime Networks last month, and at the end of 2022 CNN Films ended its stellar 10-year run of acquiring externally produced documentaries films ended (including this year’s) . oscars). winner of the year Navalny). That sent Courtney Sexton, SVP of CNN Films, back to Participant, where she previously worked.

In a statement saying goodbye to Nishimura and Bricke, Netflix acknowledged Nishimura’s pioneering work in documentaries as well as her previous oversight of stand-up comedy specials.

“Lisa Nishimura joined Netflix in the DVD days, and when the company moved into streaming, she built our original documentary and stand-up comedy divisions from the ground up, establishing Netflix as a powerhouse in both. ” said Scott Stuber, chairman of Netflix Film, to which Nishimura reported.

Nishimura joined Netflix in 2007 from Palm Pictures, where she was general manager. At the time, PBS and HBO were virtually the only major providers of documentary content. Under Nishimura’s tenure, Netflix has become a major player in the space, earning the platform its first Oscar nomination for the documentary in 2014. The square and first win for the documentary The White Helmets in 2017. Netflix started owning the Oscar Doc race and won for the feature films Icarus (2018), American factory (2020), My octopus teacher (2021) and short doc Period of time. end of sentence (2019) and received film nominations including Virunga (2015), What happened Miss Simone? (2016), Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Freedom Struggle (2016), 13^e (2017), ed The edge of democracy (2020).

“It was Lisa and Adam Del Deo who loved the first rough cut of the film I brought back from Ukraine in 2014,” she said. winter on fire director Evgeny Afineevsky, “and they helped me with their notes to finish it. I definitely learned a lot from Lisa working with her and Adam winter on fire. She got good grades and it was a great school for me as a young filmmaker starting my way in Hollywood.

Nishimura’s collaboration with the Obamas’ production company Higher Ground won him an Oscar American factory and an Oscar nomination in 2021 for crab campthe documentary that explored the rise of the disability rights movement.

“We will be forever grateful to Lisa for her visionary defense of crab camp‘ filmmakers Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht told Deadline. “By working with Netflix and Higher Ground, we were able to create a film that was a milestone in advocacy for people with disabilities – dispelling misconceptions about disability and making an impact felt around the world. “

Newnham and LeBrecht added, “You can’t make changes like this without respect, listening and learning. Lisa and her team listened to our team members with real disability experiences and thought outside the box with us so we could bring them to the table crab camp into the world in ways that fulfilled the story’s potential, including finding ways to move the industry forward by making streaming movies more accessible. We are so proud of the work we have done together.”

In the past two years, however, Netflix has backed away from dominating the Oscar documentary race. The streamer received no nominations in this category in 2023 and 2022, although it won in the Doc Short category this year The Elephant Whisperers. Many recent thunderstorms have been stolen from National Geographic and HBO documentaries.

“You would have thought a few years ago that Netflix would definitely be up and running [for Best Documentary Feature]said Simon Kilmurry, former executive director of the International Documentary Association. “It’s surprising … NatGeo has some big movies this year and Netflix doesn’t have that many.”

Nishimura also oversaw documentary series for Netflix until joining the film group in 2020. Nowhere has her impact on the documentary field been greater than in series, given the importance of true crime to any streaming platform more than any other genre.

“They watch documentaries and it was really Lisa’s vision Make a killer became an outbreak [in 2015]remarked Kilmurry. “It changed the field forever and maybe not for the better because of the type of formal emerging true crime docs. But you certainly can’t argue with the impact it has.”

Nishimura’s sudden departure raises concerns in the documentary community about the dwindling supply of content for streaming platforms and other distributors to care about. Rather than relying on gifted filmmakers to develop compelling content, some industry leaders see decision-making based on algorithms that predict what will be popular with subscribers.

“I think under Lisa’s tenure they had a well-deserved reputation for supporting filmmakers’ visions,” Kilmurry said, referring to Oscar nominee Yance Ford (Strong island) and Petra Costa (The edge of democracy). “I think it’s shifting. That kind of commercial pressure can reduce the space for risk-taking.”

A senior independent advertising executive, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, said: “What a loss for Netflix. It’s becoming less and less shocking to see top talent dropped from the Netflix roster as they continue to navigating changing priority structure and content strategy Lisa and Ian [Bricke] are incredible acts – incredibly talented, thoughtful and innovative leaders who are so respected in the industry.

As Deadline reported Thursday, all Netflix live-action film content will now be overseen by Kira Goldberg, Ori Marmur and Niija Kuykendall, reporting to Scott Stuber. Deadline understands that Nishimura’s documentary responsibilities will be taken over by Dan Silver for the US and Canada, with Kate Townsend for the UK (Adam Del Deo – VP, Original Documentary Series – and Brandon Riegg – VP Unscripted and Documentary Series – who are not is not in custody – fiction content will take over).

It’s only been a year since Nishimura celebrated one of her greatest successes: the documentary film The Tinder scammer, which was the most popular movie on Netflix for several weeks in 2022, whether fiction or non-fiction. She told Deadline in an interview at the time: “I used to be in a film studio that was sold to Netflix [Palm Pictures]… I remember the earliest days of engagement [with Netflix] this, wow, this is a place that really respects and understands the documentary form.

Netflix shares have regained some of their luster after a sharp drop last April that wiped $50 billion off the books in one day (recently traded around $345 per share from a low of $166 per share on May 11, 2022) . . But that jitter last spring, along with ongoing headwinds that hurt the economy as a whole, led to an industry-wide cutback. Netflix has been scrutinizing budgets and earlier this month shelved a romantic comedy directed by Nancy Myers, citing rising costs.

Nishimura’s comment about budgets from just a year ago seems odd in retrospect.

“We’re really driven by what’s going to bring joy to audiences,” Nishimura told us last February, referring to both fiction and nonfiction. “In terms of cost and value, the cost is really determined by the proportional size of the audience. Something like one Don’t look up that has a huge commitment, a huge, huge audience is actually incredibly valuable to us as well.

Their mark will continue to be felt on Netflix. In his statement, Stuber referred to their role in emerging narrative features They cloned Tyrone, Rustin And NYAD. And many admirers predict bright things for her post-Netflix future. One Oscar-nominated filmmaker wrote on Facebook: “This is a loss for Netflix, but I imagine streaming and premium competitors will line up with offers for them.”

Recommendations are not hard to find.

“It was always a pleasure to work with Lisa,” says Orlowski-Yang. “Trusting us as artists to tell the story the way we wanted to tell it, she always encouraged us to trust our instincts and empowered us to do our work in the way we know best. Working with her was truly one of the highlights of the documentary industry for me.”