While streaming has been poised to elbow traditional theatrical releases out of the Oscar spotlight, tonight’s results are offering a modest rebuke to that narrative.

While Best Picture could still go to a streaming service, which would represent a significant milestone in the 94-year history of the Academy Awards, the total is now assured of falling short of last year’s record of nine. With a handful of major categories left, there have been three wins for streaming out of 18 categories, two for Apple’s CODA, for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. Jane Campion was named Best Director for Netflix’s The Power of the Dog.

Netflix, which led all studios and streamers with 27 total nominations, and has piled up 86 over the past three years. The Power of the Dog paced this year’s field with 12 nominations, but came into the home stretch of the show without any hardware.

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Amazon Prime Video helped amp up the conversation about streaming Oscars in 2017 when it recorded three wins out of seven nominations for Manchester by the Sea and The Salesman. Netflix captured Best Documentary (Short Subject) that same year with The White Helmets. Those four wins were equaled in 2019, the year of Netflix’s Roma and Period. End of Sentence and Prime Video’s Cold War.

Defining what makes a “streaming movie” has gotten trickier due to Covid, of course. Last year, with the ceremony recognizing films that were largely unable to play theatrically due to the pandemic, the Academy waived the qualifying requirement that films be theatrically released. Last June, the board of governors extended that protection but said future ceremonies could see some theatrical threshold re-established.

Business considerations had already manifest themselves in the distribution strategies of several nominated films. Citing concerns about pandemic safety, Warner Bros opted to put its entire 2021 slate (including eventual Best Picture nominees Dune and King Richard) on HBO Max at the same time it hit theaters.

Disney went a step further and put films including Oscar-nominated Luca on Disney+ without any domestic theatrical run. Best Animated Feature winner Encanto raked in $250 million at the box office but moved onto Disney+ last Christmas Eve after just a month in theaters. Its 10-week stint on the Nielsen streaming chart and the rise of its soundtrack to the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 came about in large part due to streaming. Best Costumes recipient Cruella came out on Disney+ at a premium-priced Premier Access title at the same time it debuted in theaters.

One of this past year’s most high-profile day-and-date releases was CODA, which Apple put out last August. Although the film was a crowd-pleaser at Sundance, where standing ovations in theaters helped stimulate bidding, which Apple eventually won with a record $25 million, its commercial run peaked at about 100 theaters. With about $1.2 million in box office, it is the clearest statement yet by a streaming entity about theaters being immaterial to Oscar success.

Talks between major exhibitors and streaming giants like Netflix have yet to produce any overall agreement on windowing. The widely accepted 45-day theatrical exclusive is dramatically shorter than what theater owners seemed willing to consider before the pandemic.

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