This might finally be the year that the Oscars stop being the be-all and end-all of film awards. The NAACP and the Spirit Awards are two massive awards shows that take place before the Oscars. They mean something when they mean something, and usually that means not falling in line with the consensus all of the time. In all of the years I’ve been covering the awards the one thing I’ve learned is that films or people rarely win because they were “the best.” Best is not an accurate measure because it varies so widely from person to person. They win because they achieved something extraordinary – they stepped outside themselves, they took a big risk, they found the sweet spot in a story that moved a great many people at once. Or they defied the odds and made something no one ever could have imagined. The Oscar voters’ taste is a reflection of who they are. That’s what they stand for. They are peer awards designed to please a sixtyish white male. We often lower our expectations accordingly.
Though Selma did not get recognized by THAT group, it’s heartening to see it get recognized elsewhere. People might say, well of course the NAACP WOULD. But when you simplify the argument you see that the Oscars really are representative mostly of white culture, give or take, so if the NAACP are representative of black of African American culture, what is the problem?
When the Oscars start being more inclusive and less focused on the one kind of demographic I think then and only then can they really proclaim they honor the best. That’s just my silly opinion on a rainy Saturday morning.
Or as Spike Lee said:
“It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work. It becomes dangerous when the outcome becomes not the art but to win a Grammy, Oscar or a Tony whatever it is and you pick the prize ahead of the art. That’s when artists get in trouble. Sometimes you get snubbed by other people so it’s always great to be recognized and validated by us.”
Outstanding Motion Picture
“Selma” (Paramount Pictures)
Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture
David Oyelowo – “Selma” (Paramount Pictures)
Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture
Taraji P. Henson – “No Good Deed” (Screen Gems)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Common – “Selma” (Paramount Pictures)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Carmen Ejogo – “Selma” (Paramount Pictures)
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Theatrical)
Antoine Fuqua – “The Equalizer” (Columbia Pictures)
Outstanding Independent Motion Picture
“Belle” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films)
Outstanding Documentary (Theatrical)
“Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People” (Chimpanzee Productions, Inc.)
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance
Loretta Devine – “Doc McStuffins” (Disney Junior)
Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Theatrical)
Misan Sagay – “Belle” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/ DJ Films)
Outstanding Comedy Series
“black-ish” (ABC)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
Anthony Anderson – “‘black-ish” (ABC)
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Tracee Ellis Ross – “black-ish” (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Laurence Fishburne – “black-ish” (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Yara Shahidi – “black-ish” (ABC)
Outstanding Drama Series
“How to Get Away with Murder” (ABC)
Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series
Shemar Moore – “Criminal Minds” (CBS)
Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series
Viola Davis – “How to Get Away with Murder” (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Joe Morton – “Scandal” (ABC)
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Khandi Alexander – “Scandal” (ABC)
Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
“The Trip to Bountiful” (Lifetime Networks)
Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
Blair Underwood – “The Trip to Bountiful” (Lifetime Networks)
Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special
Cicely Tyson – “The Trip to Bountiful” (Lifetime Networks)
Outstanding News/ Information (Series or Special)
“Unsung” (TV One)
Outstanding Talk Series
“Steve Harvey” (Syndicated)
Outstanding Reality Series
“Iyanla: Fix My Life” (OWN)
Outstanding Variety (Series or Special)
“Oprah’s Master Class” (OWN)
Outstanding Children’s Program
“Doc McStuffins” (Disney Junior)
Outstanding Performance by a Youth in a Youth/Children’s Program (Series or Special)
Fatima Ptacek – “Dora and Friends: Into The City!” (Nickelodeon)
Outstanding Host
Steve Harvey – “Steve Harvey” (Syndicated)
Outstanding Documentary (Television)
“Bad Boys” (ESPN)
Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series
Sara Hess – “Orange is the New Black” – It Was the Change (Netflix)
Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series
Erika Green Swafford – “How to Get Away with Murder” – Let’s Get To Scooping (ABC)
Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture (Television)
Shernold Edwards – “A Day Late and a Dollar Short” (Lifetime Networks)
Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series
Ken Whittingham – “Parks and Recreation” – Prom (NBC)
Outstanding Directing in a Dramatic Series
Carl Franklin – “House of Cards” – Chapter 14 (Netflix)
Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television)
Reggie Bythewood – “Gun Hill” (BET)
Outstanding New Artist
3 Winans Brothers (BMG)
Outstanding Male Artist
Pharrell Williams (Columbia Records)
Outstanding Female Artist
Beyoncé (Columbia Records)
Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration
“Stay with Me” – Sam Smith feat. Mary J Blige (Capitol)
Outstanding Jazz Album
“My Old Friend: Celebrating George Duke” – Al Jarreau (Concord)
Outstanding Gospel Album (Traditional or Contemporary)
“Where My Heart Belongs” – Gladys Knight (Shadow Mountain Records)
Outstanding Music Video
“You & I (Nobody in the World)” – John Legend (Columbia Records)
Outstanding Song
“We Are Here” – Alicia Keys (RCA Records)
Outstanding Album
“Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics” – Aretha Franklin (RCA Records)
Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction
“A Wanted Woman” – Eric Jerome Dickey (Penguin Random House)
Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction
“Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” – Bryan Stevenson (Spiegel & Grau)
Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author
“Forty Acres” – Dwayne Alexander Smith (Atria Books)
Outstanding Literary Work – Biography/ Auto Biography
“Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine” – Louis Sullivan with David Chanoff (University of Georgia Press)
Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional
“Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life” – Joe Brewster, Michele Stephenson, Hilary Beard (Spiegel & Grau)
Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry
“Citizen: An American Lyric” – Claudia Rankine (Graywolf Press)
Outstanding Literary Work – Children
“Dork Diaries 8: Tales From A Note-So-Happily Ever After” – Rachel Renee Russell with Nikki Russell and Erin Russell (Simon & Schuster)
Outstanding Literary Work – Youth/Teens
“Brown Girl Dreaming” – Jacqueline Woodson (Nancy Paulsen Books)
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Congratulations!
The NAACP is Misogynist!
You Americans are doing it soooo wrong!
“No Good Deed” seriously? That film is rated rotten on RT with an overall rating of 10%.
I dont know if it was nominated but another strange snub was Chris Rock and his Top Five. This awards list is really confusing.
Mucho happy that DuVerney lost and that Sasha and Ryan have no balls to say anything against African Americans who voted for Fuqua. This really made my day because a) it exposed what we knew all along, that people simply thought other directors were better than DuVerney (both white and black voters are in agreement) and b) that Sasha and Ryan enforce double standard and are total cowards. They “fight” for minorities but have no guts to call out those minorities when they make the same decisions as majority that’s on Sasha and Ryan’s hit list.
Very happy that NAACP gave DuVerney the finger. She’s a total gimmick cause her direction is as mediocre as Tydlum and Marsh’s and her only narrative is that she’s a WoC (political gimmick). Well, political gimmick + mediocrity = no DGA/Oscar nom/NAACP win for you. Great to see another organization that refused to let politics trump artistic merit.
I like how this article completely ignored Duvernay losing best director to Fuqua. If there was one place Duvernay should have been a shoo-in for the award, it was here. How they chose not to honor her for best director is beyond me. The Equalizer is not a good movie. Selma is a great movie. I’m not going to give the NAACP a cookie for making the right choice at Best Picture when they are seemingly as sexist as the Academy. Duvernay was a no brainer for this award.
good for Selma, but really? the winners seem to be all over the place.
It’s like, hey we can be both serious and messing around at the same time!
These award don’t mean nothing and are totally invalidated by a win as best director for Antoine Fuqua over Ava Duvernay or Best actress Taraji over Gugu or Tessa. And if we go further with the tv winners, did you saw who won for tv comedy supp actress?. Sasha this time these awards mean nothing when they don’t mean nothing (but I’m happy for Selma, simply the best)
This could mean big things for SSelmaa at the Oscars and indie spirit awarda I loved Selma I think its the most expressionist of the 8 Oscar nominated films. Its also the most high spirited and loved by millions of people. Its an american social and historical film. Boyhood or the Imitatiin game but looking back Selma will be remembered as the loser but also the best.
”The peer awards designed to please a sixtyish white male chose 12 Years a Slave.”
Yes, the Academy chose to honor a movie about blacks last year as Best Picture for the FIRST TIME in its 86-year-old history. No, it doesn’t necessarily mean the Academy is racist, but it did reflect the tastes of a membership that is 94% white. … Just because history is made now and then, doesn’t mean everything is hunky-dory. That’s like thinking because Barack Obama got elected and re-elected President, our country no longer has any race issues.
“This might finally be the year that the Oscars stop being the be-all and end-all of film awards. The NAACP and the Spirit Awards are two massive awards shows that take place before the Oscars. They mean something when they mean something, and usually that means not falling in line with the consensus all of the time.”
So by your logic, the Oscars were the be-all and end-all of film awards last year because none of the Big 4 critics’ organizations (NYFCC, NBR, LAFCA and NSFC) or SAG chose 12 Years a Slave as their Best Picture, but the Oscars did. The peer awards designed to please a sixtyish white male chose 12 Years a Slave. Racist one year. Not racist the previous year.
Lol, I’m pretty sure people were watching Empire when they voted for Taraji… seriously tho. That’s the only excuse over Gugu and Tessa Thompson.
You know, I respect and admire the fight for people of color and women in movies that is strong advocated for on this site. It’s absolutely wonderful. Refreshing. Important. All season we’ve read articles on awardsdaily going to bat for people of color and women. I’ve found most of the articles to be illuminating and effective. However, I slightly agree with the above poster that it gets to be a bit much, at times.
I recently asked my 57 yr. old Black female co-worker what she thought of Selma. This woman is smart, educated, and a knowedgable movie-goer. She did not think Selma was an amazing movie, but a good one that didnt really make her get all riled up or anything; just a good movie that seemed a little oversold on its quality.
I asked her about the Oyelowo snub. She said that while she thought he was good, he wasnt AMERICAN and she thought an AMERICAN black actor could have done just as good of a job if not better. She didn’t see anything transformative or mindblowing in the Oyelowo performance. Mayyyyybe actors in the acting branch felt similarly? In fact, after asking her about Oyelowo, she made an immediate comment that Forrest Whitaker was much better in The Butler last year, and that he should have been nommed last year; but that Oyelowo didnt necessarily deserve a nomination this year from what she has seen (and she has seen a lot).
I asked her about Carmen Ejogo. She said that Ejogo was a stunning woman but, again, when I told her she as British, she said … And WHY couldnt we have had an AMERICAN black woman to fill that role?? We’ve got many. Etc.
When I asked her about the DuVernay snub, she thought that it would have been great to have an African-American woman nommed for Best Director. Having said that, she then went on to praise American Sniper and was also surprised/agitated that Clint Eastwood (she has loved his movies for decades) did not get a nomination there, either.
My point is that: whether it was some racism, the late release date, a bumbled campaign, major lack of screeners ……. there’s also just going to be people who didn’t LOVE the movie or LOVE a particular performance and, those opinions may be coming from Blacks, Whites, the young, the old, or any combination of people.
I, too, was surprised that DuVernay lost to Fuqua and that Mbatha-Raw lost to Henson, but … I haven’t seen ”The Equalizer” or ”No Good Deed,” so I don’t know if the NAACP voters chose wisely. Anyhow, I’ve included a complete list of the nominees. Yes, they’re overwhelmingly African-American, but sprinkled among them are Latinos (Sofia Vergara, Guillermo Diaz, Rosie Perez), Asian-Americans (Jeff Chang, Mindy Kaling) and a number of Caucasians.
http://www.naacpimageawards.net/nominees/
“The Oscar voters’ taste is a reflection of who they are. That’s what they stand for. They are peer awards designed to please a sixtyish white male. We often lower our expectations accordingly….Though Selma did not get recognized by THAT group,”
These comments are quite sickening, with all due respect to Sasha Stone. The Academy nominated it for Best Picture, which is the most important nomination of them all.
We can’t get EVERYTHING we want in life. Lets not turn into the spoiled rich child, who throws a tantrum because his/her parents bought them the wrong color sports car for their 16th birthday. The Academy can ONLY nominate 5 films in the acting, directing, and writing categories. Just because “they” didn’t nominate Selma for Best Director or Best Actor, doesn’t mean they are somewhat racist or unwilling to view films with African American casts as Oscar worthy.
Also surprised to not see commentary on this from Sasha or Ryan. What do you two think of the Director/Actress results ??
How on Earth did DuVernay lose to Fuqua?
How did Gugu Mbatha-Raw lose to Henson?
Really???????
Are you freaking kidding me? Fuqua over DuVernay? Talk about overt sexism. Time for a demographic breakdown on these voters, too.
“No good deed” even being in the running for any awards almost completely illegitimizes them as a whole.
On a better note, the best actor and best picture awards were definitely well deserved. .
Apparently everyone at the Academy is a racist for not voting as one of the top 5 directors a black woman which made a movie about MLK and still lost the NAACP awards to the director of the Equalizer…*sigh* Funny how Sasha doesn’t mention this at all…
Maybe they want to spread the wealth? Or maybe Fuqua is a really good director? Haven’t seen the movie. Or maybe they’re just sexist.
“They mean something when they mean something…”
There’s a roundabout way of saying absolutely nothing of significance.
It’s strange to me that they would choose Antoine Fuqua for directing a silly, over-the-top, derivative action film about Denzel Washington risking his life to save some random white girl over a nuanced film about MLK Jr’s activism directed by Ava DuVernay.
Giving Taraji P. Henson Best Actress for a critically-reviled film over recognizing Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s TWO great performances this year is pretty hard to understand.
Antoine Fuqua winning for Best Directing is a bit weird considering Ava DuVernay was running.
sasha the last year gravity great movie directed by a latinamerican director and with one of the most strong female carhacters in history won 7 oscars, and you didnt notice why? because it wasnt directed by david fincher and it wasnt about civil rights in my opinion you are the most racist blogger on line,how about latins and assians they are not enough good for you?
^ In a field so small and specific, they should combine the lead and supporting categories.
Talk about your lack of diversity.
Taraji Henson for Best Actress for “No Good Deed.” That’s the best they could do?