Can American cinema simultaneously be thriving and in crisis? On one hand, domestic box office in the U.S. is looking better in 2026 than it has in years. On the other hand, concerns about the loss of mid-budget films continue to be ubiquitous, with directors like John Waters and John Sayles unsure if they’ll ever be able to make another film. Numerous observers have pinned the industry’s issues on things like studio consolidation and an interest in pre-existing IP. But there’s another question to consider: is this is all YouTube’s fault?
In a highly detailed piece, Patrick Willems revisited the heyday of music videos, when production values were much higher and the cultural impact of a memorable music video was much deeper. In other words, there was a time not long ago when you could use a career making distinctive music videos as a way to level up to feature filmmaking.
To cite one example, beginning in 2004, the DVD imprint Palm Pictures began releasing the Directors Label, a series of collected music videos and short films from a host of acclaimed filmmakers. Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry were among the first filmmakers so collected; subsequent volumes included Anton Corbijn and recent Oscar nominee Jonathan Glazer. Some of these directors had already begun moving into feature work; several more would follow. (Though he was not part of this series, David Fincher is another prominent example of a director who moved from music videos to features with style.)
What happened between then and now? Willems argues that the advent of YouTube as the go-to place for music videos, as opposed to a dedicated space like MTV, is responsible. “The form was democratized, but it was also devalued,” Willems says of the shift to YouTube.
He points to one important change: when MTV aired music videos during this period, it included a director’s credit; watching a video on YouTube, you won’t automatically see one. That doesn’t mean there aren’t directorial credits on music videos any more; Olivia Rodrigo’s “drop dead” has one, for instance. But you have to know to look for it.
Willems pins a lot on this, noting that decades ago, directors who understood how to “make shit look cool” could turn blockbuster films into visually interesting experiences. Have we lost something without that? He makes a compelling case that we have.
Spotify Is Adding Music Videos, but Don’t Get Too Excited (Yet)
Americans will have to wait a little longerThat said — and, to be fair, this is somewhat out of the scope of his video — Willems does not touch on one way in which platforms like YouTube have created other ways in to the feature film world. The upcoming A24 film Backrooms grew out of director Kane Parsons’s short videos of the same name, for instance. And Kogonada, director of films like Columbus, got his start making acclaimed video essays on Vimeo. Willems’s larger point is, I would argue, absolutely correct — but there are some green shoots present if you’re looking for reasons to be cautiously optimistic.
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