During a talk at the Variety Studio at the Sundance Film Festival, director/producer/actor Mark Duplass offered some straightforward advice to peers and young filmmakers navigating the world of distribution. He stressed the importance of making films available on Netflix, saying the release of his first movie on the streaming media service “made his career.” Duplass, who has debuted nearly 10 films at Sundance, was there to premiere his new project, “The One I Love.”

“I’m gonna say something controversial here,” Duplass said at Variety Studio. “And this is no slight to all my friends who distribute movies, [but] the most important part of making a movie is making sure that film streams on Netflix.”

According to Variety, Duplass said his first feature accidentally ended up on Netflix a few years back, “and it was, without question, the greatest stroke of fortune in his career.”

“Getting yourself into theaters is great,” Duplass said. “Getting a big VOD pop is great, but my first movie made a grand total of $220,000 in theaters but about 5 million people have seen it on Netflix because they can click on it and they can try it out.”

In addition to his latest feature release, Duplass also currently stars in FX’s “The League,” which — appropriately — streams on Netflix.