Veteran vs Veteran: Michael Douglas blames Steven Spielberg's controversial 'TV vs Film' bias for his not winning best actor at 2013 Cannes

Veteran actor Michael Douglas believes filmmaker Steven Spielberg's stand against television cost him the best actor trophy at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Douglas starred in Steven Soderbergh's HBO film "Behind the Candelabra", alongside actor Matt Damon. The movie had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and was among strong contenders for the coveted Palme d'Or trophy. Spielberg served as the president of the Cannes competition jury that year. Appearing on Variety's "Actor on Actor" series with Benecio del Toro, the 74-year-old actor said many people told him that he was "favourite" for the award, which was bagged by Bruce Dern for "Nebraska". 

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"The word was I was the favourite for the best actor award. (Spielberg) put the kibosh on that, because it was an HBO film. So when I now see this argument and beef about Showtime or Netflix, in this case, doing feature films, I think they've got to get this resolved," he said.

Spielberg last year made headlines after the veteran filmmaker said once "you commit to a television format, you're a TV movie" and argued that if it's good, it deserves an Emmy and not Oscars. His comments had sparked a debate in Hollywood about whether movies distributed by Netflix with a limited theatrical release deserve Oscar recognition.

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Variety also posted a video of Douglas claiming the same, on Twitter;

'Behind the Candelabra' is a story about a world-famous pianist,  Liberace (Michael Douglas) who takes much-younger Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) as a lover, but the relationship deteriorates when Liberace takes other bedmates and Thorson becomes addicted to drugs. For his performance in the film, Douglas received many awards like the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor, Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series, and Satellite Award for Best Actor in a Mini-Series & Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television; however the actor still regrets not getting the Best Actor Award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. 

(With Inputs from PTI)