Netflix is soon losing the Hungarian award-winning black and white film Curtiz just two years after it was added to Netflix around the globe.
Removal dates are currently now showing on the Netflix page for Curtiz with a “Last day to watch on Netflix” notice listed for March 24th meaning it’ll be removed on March 25th, 2022.
Directed by Tamas Yvan Topolanszky, the movie follows the driven and arrogant film director Michael Curtiz who has to deal with studio politics and family drama during the troubled production of “Casablanca” in 1942. This is all while America is preparing to enter WW2.
The story is based on true events that are articulately laid out in this post from The Irish Times as well as the movie itself.
Curtiz was written by Zsuzsanna Bak and stars Ferenc Lengyel and Evelin Dobos. The movie is largely spoken in English and Hungarian.
The movie is very much in the same vein as the later released David Fincher movie Mank which detailed the production of Citizen Kane. That film was a lot more successful for Netflix picking up 2 Oscars for the streamer. How well it performed on Netflix itself is up for debate, however.
Curtiz first premiered in Canada during a film festival back in September 2019. It later went onto exhibit at numerous festivals including several in the United States, Italy, Poland, and Hungary. It won awards at the Boston International Film Festival and Burbank International Film Festival.
It wasn’t until 2020 when Netflix acquired the global rights to the movie and released it on March 25th, 2020 to not much fanfare.
Sadly, the rights we now know were only acquired for a couple of years with those now set to expire around the globe.
Netflix Originals leaving Netflix isn’t particularly new but this removal does demonstrate how short some of these titles are on Netflix. Netflix Original is arguably half the problem here with the connotation that just because something is a Netflix Original it’s owned by Netflix. Sadly, that’s not always the case.
Will you be checking our Curtiz when it leaves Netflix in March 2022? Let us know in the comments. For more on Netflix removals, keep an eye on our leaving Netflix soon hub.