The 2015 Oscar nominations are out this morning, and I am pleased to announce that Selma has received a nod for Best Picture and one for Best Song for the single Glory, which was written and performed by Florida A&M Rattler and prominent rap recording artist/actor Common and John Legend. I was hoping to see Ava Duvernay nominated for Best Director for her work on Selma. I also had hoped for a few nominations for individual work by actresses and actors in the film, particularly Stephan James for his depiction of SNCC leader and future congressman John Lewis. Still, while I will watch to see what happens, I am not overly optimistic that Oscar Gold will be given to a movie that depicts the angst that Dr. MArtin Luther King and his aides felt during the pivotal first few months of 1965. Again, this is the same Academy that snubbed A Soldiers Story, The Color Purple, and most crucially, Spike Lees Malcolm X for major Oscar awards. While there has been some integration in the awards over the past 12 years, I still suspect that the Academy is rather suspect in how it views films based on pivotal historical events involving blacks. Nota Bene that this same hesitancy does not morph over to action/dramas such as Training Day, Last King of Scotland, or Monsters Ball which showed blacks as either evil (Denzel Washington and Forrest Whitaker) or stereotypical damsels in distress saved by white men (Halle Berry), so in all honesty, I will not hold my breath for Selma. (Ray, which earned Jamie Foxx an Oscar for depicting the vicissitudes in the life of legendary recording artist Ray Charles, is a notable exception in the historical account genre of black themed films). As such, suffice it to say that I thank God for the NAACP Image Awards as I believe that Selma should fare quite well there...#FUBU
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 14:17:59 +0000
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