Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Stop Bull*@#$ Us Academy, Its Time To Introduce An African American Best Picture Category

And the winner for best African American pictures is… For Colored Girls!!! Even though the film wasn’t that great, it would’ve been strong enough to get that award. With the Academy Awards this Sunday, there are no African Americans nominated in any category – unlike last year’s ceremonies in which I thought last year was sort of a fluke, but maybe not, it was one picture and you did had the Oprah factor, but needless to say there are no person of color representing the academy this year which I think is pretty pathetic. Seriously, we had a lot of great black films that came out in 2010 – most of them went under the radar because the fine folk at the academy never considers Indy black films a glance.
That is why I recommend an African American best picture category, and you can say all you want like… “We don’t need it because we are progressing”, that’s bullshit! Until you get rid of those old, tired, snobby academy members it’s going to continue to be just the same. Look, we had an African American elected president, and four black NFL head coaches that has taken teams to Super bowls while the Academy still thinks it’s 1955.
So, just make all of us happy and introduce to the world an African American Best Picture category. Now, I am not saying that all black films necessarily go into that prestige category, but if a strong black film of color can run neck to neck with the big dogs (very rarely) then by all means invite them.
With this newly established category would give black films a voice to the mainstream, possibly growth and would finally give Spike Lee a chance to win his long deserve Oscar.
If you would like to comment on this subject please feel free to email me at screenwriter4hire@yahoo.com