It seems like only yesterday that Netflix announced that it acquired an award-winning documentary – its first “major” acquisition in its original documentary initiative (Netflix’s words). That’s probably because it was only yesterday.
Today’s another day, and Netflix has announced that it has added another award-winning film to its original documentary slate: The Short Game. This one, Netflix says, is actually its “first” original documentary.
You remember that last month, Netflix acquired the documentary BrideGroom, which debuted on the service last week.
On Monday, Netflix announced that it acquired The Square, which is already generating Oscar buzz. It’s already been screening with the Netflix logo in New York and LA, but won’t actually debut on Netflix until early next year.
So, just to sort things out, while Netflix acquired and debuted BrideGroom earlier, the film is not considered a Netflix original. While The Square is considered its first “major” acquisition in the original documentary initiative, it won’t debut until next year. That brings us to The Short Game, which will actually debut on December 12th technically making it the first Netflix original documentary.
The film follows the lives of a handful of “the best 7-year old golfers in the world” as they train to compete in the World Championsjhips of Junior Golf. It’s produced by Rafael Marmor, Christopher Leggett, and Josh Greenbaum, and executive produced by Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake, Timm Oberwelland, John Battsek and David Frankel.
Here’s the trailer:
Earlier this year, Netflix disclosed its plans to offer more original documentaries and stand-up comedy specials. They’re really cranking away at these now.
In addition to the aforementioned documentaries, Netflix has recently put out original/exclusive stand-up performances from John Hodgman, Rob Schneider, Marc Maron, Kathleen Madigan, Aziz Ansari and Russell Peters (whose special release was accompanied by an original docu-series).
Netflix has recently said that it is doubling its investment in original content, and that means more original series, more stand-up specials and more original documentaries. Now, they’re even talking about movies.
2013 has been a fascinating year for the company as its original content initiative has really kicked into gear (and already garnered fourteen Emmy nominations and a few wins). With new seasons of its existing shows and premieres of other shows, in addition to all of this other original content, 2014 should be an even bigger year for Netflix.
Image: Netflix (YouTube)
