my five big reasons why there was no oscar snub of selma - #oscarssowhite & #selmasnub debate - part...

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First, let me say that I'm tired of all of this talk about "snubs" I thought for every one of [the snubs] there was a justifiable reason. What no one wants to say

out loud is that Selma is a well-crafted movie, but there's no art to it. If the movie had been directed by a 60-year-old white male, I don't think that people would

have been carrying on about it to the level that they were. And as far as the accusations about the Academy being racist? Yes, most members are white

males, but they are not the cast of Deliverance they had to get into the Academy to begin with, so they're not cretinous, snaggletoothed hillbillies. When

a movie about black people is good, members vote for it. But if the movie isn't that good, am I supposed to vote for it just because it has black people in it? I've

got to tell you, having the cast show up in T-shirts saying "I can't breathe" [at their New York premiere] I thought that stuff was offensive. Did they want to be known for making the best movie of the year or for stirring up shit?...Scott FeinbergThe RaceThe Hollywood Reporter2-18-2015

I didnt think Selma was a particularly good film, apart from the main actor [David Oyelowo], and I think the outcry about the Academy being racists for not nominating it for more awards is offensive we have a two-term president who is a black woman [Cheryl Boone Isaacs] and we give out awards to black people when they deserve them, just like any other group?...Scott FeinbergThe RaceThe Hollywood Reporter2-19-2015

I didn't think Selma made LBJ [Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson] into a bad guy; in reality, he was a foul-mouthed politician who was protecting himself, but he still

came around and ultimately did the right thing, and the film shows that. The movie suggests he was arm-twisted into doing that, and maybe he was, but he still did it, so I had no problem with that at allOverall, I thought Selma was a very good movie, but it didn't blow me awayScott FeinbergThe RaceThe Hollywood Reporter2-20-2015

Selma was a really well-made film and very emotional for me. It did not benefit from coming out in the bottom of the ninth inning [an apparent reference to the film's late-year release of screeners]; if it had come out in the seventh inning, we

might be looking at a very different situation, but it just got a bit lost because other movies' motors were already revving. Based on the way that we [the

Academy] have been able to embrace 12 Years a Slave and various black actors and actresses through the years, I don't believe for one minute that race had

anything to do with the director or actor from Selma not getting nominated.

David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com [email protected] www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart

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There were many people who deserved to be nominated in those categories and weren't I mean, it was the biggest lead actor field I've ever seen. [Nightcrawler's] Jake Gyllenhaal [not getting nominated]? Come on. Why not talk about another black actor who was worthy of a nomination? There wasn't a

better performance this year than Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up. But it [him not being nominated] had nothing to do with him being black. They could have

put five other fucking guys in there! It's just that certain movies resonate and certain movies don't. Momentum has so much to do with things. Selma, in my

opinion, just got to the party too late.Scott FeinbergThe RaceThe Hollywood Reporter2-22-2015

I really liked Selma. The thing about LBJ [Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson] did bother me a little bit, not because he actually was an appealing man he wasn't but because he did do an amazing thing, as difficult as it was, by forcing through the most profound Civil Rights Act ever, which wasn't emphasized in the film. But I have no doubt that it was a very difficult film to make and I, frankly,

was thrilled that it even got made and with a woman director [Ava DuVernay]. It wasn't my favorite film, but it was a film I liked and it was a huge

accomplishment.Scott FeinbergThe RaceThe Hollywood Reporter2-21-2015

The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in

1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure

equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma

to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act

of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.

Director Ava DuVernay's "Selma" tells the story of how the revered leader and

visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the

movement prompted change that forever altered history.Written by Miss W J

Mcdermott


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MY FIVE BIG REASONS WHY THERE WAS NO OSCAR SNUB

OF SELMA (2014) #OSCARSSOWHITE #SELMASNUB DEBATE- PART 1 - 2-20-2015

2-20-2015 - Written By: David L. $Money Train$ Watts Journalist/Film Reviewer FuTurXTV & HHBMedia.com - David Velo Stewart Editor www.hiphopbattle.com

The quotes above are from random and unidentified Academy Award voters

who have been interviewed and chronicled in The Hollywood Reporters Scott

Feinbergs in-depth series of articles about what they allegedly said they would vote for on their Oscar ballots. I chose the quotes about Selma (2014) to

highlight what they really thought about the film and its chances of winning

Best Picture or its director Ava DuVernay and its lead actor David Oyelowo

being snubbed for his powerful portrayal of Martin Luther King, Jr. The

blunt and revealing thoughts of these Academy voters speak for themselves.

Yet none of them suggest that they hated Selma, but rather they just like other

Best Picture nominated films and acting performances they saw better. But

what most people who are passionate supporters of diversity in Hollywood do

not know is that merely hoping, wanting or expecting a major Black film or

important Civil Rights themed film like Ava DuVernays Selma to be a

multiple Oscar winner was never ever going to happen. So I will do my best to

quickly breakdown my five best and most sensible reasons why there was no

Oscar snub of Selma and also why there was no intentional racist conspiracy

to make all 20 acting nominations of the 2014 Academy Awards all white:

1. Paramount Studio always wanted Chris Nolans big budget sci-fi drama Interstellar to be a big Oscar winner and not Selma. The budget for

Interstellar was $165 million and the global prints and advertising was


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$150 million while in comparison Selmas budget was $22 million and

about $15 million was spent on P&A. So it is highly understandable that

Paramount was more concerned about mounting major Oscar

campaign for Interstellar, which had a highly respected and successful

veteran director in Christopher Nolan and three A-list actors in

Mathew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Matt Damon and other power

pack supporting actors like John Lithgow, Michael Caine, Jessica

Chastain, Topher Grace and Casey Affleck. And Selmas David Oyelowo had small role in Interstellar as the principal and was not even

cast as the main Black astronaut Romilly who was played by David

Gyasi. So it is highly plausible to understand why Paramount would

not be overly concerned or worried about staging a serious Oscar

campaign for a newbie Black female director and a lead actor that was

not even the lead Black actor in Interstellar. Ava DuVernay or Selmas

producers Oprah and Brad Pitt have not publicly faulted Paramounts flawed and subpar Oscar campaign for Selma or even questioning why

Paramount did not allegedly spend the money and manpower to send out DVD screeners of Selma to all the SAG actors. Selma was shutout

from getting SAG nominations not because of racism, but rather glaring

incompetence. And despite Selma getting four Golden Globe

nominations it was more important for Selmas Oscar chances that the

film failed to get SAG nominations. The act alone in my opinion started

the probably unfair perception that Selma was not worthy of other

nominations for WGA, PGA, DGA and BAFTRA. The fact that Selma

was not getting any nominations in all the major film guilds should have

altered anyone who follows the Oscars to know that its chances of

getting and winning Academy Award nominations was already doomed.

2. Ava DuVernay threw Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s estate and Selmas

British and white screenwriter Paul Webb under the bus were huge pre-

Oscar nomination distractions that did not have to happen. First, Ava

wanted the Hollywood press and anyone who would listen to know that

she was hampered and challenged with bringing Selma to the screen

because Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s estate would not allow her to use Martin Luther Kings actual speeches he gave while he was in Selma.


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Because Selma is historically accurate, many have assumed that

Oyelowo delivers MLKs actual speeches, but the King estate didnt give

the filmmakers license to use them. That forced DuVernay to write her

own speeches for MLK, and an individual familiar with her contribution

to the writing process tells TheWrap that the director performed a page-

one rewrite on Webbs original screenplay, changing the perspective of

the story, adding nearly a dozen new characters and coming up with a new

third act the most crucial part of any scriptJeff

SneiderTheWrap12-11-2014

Weve heard you wrote the speeches in the film. Can you expand on that?

Theres not been a major motion picture made with King at the center in

fifty years A big part of the reason why was because of the intellectual

property and because, for better or for worse, the estate and thats not

necessarily family, thats the intellectual property agency or whatever that

manages the rights has control over how theyre used I just

untethered myself from those words and anchored myself in the intention

of those words and rewrote the speeches as closely to his cadence and his

intention as I could.Anita BennettTheWrap12-28-2014

But that then may me wonder what was so historically inaccurate or

wrong with Selma and Ava as its director that the King estate could not

fully endorse allowing the film to use Kings exact words in the films

King speech scenes. But Ava wanted everyone to know that she should

be credited with writing the King speeches even if most people and press

would really not have known that the Selma speeches were not 100%

accurate. Those Selma speeches are not the most famous quoted ones by


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Martin Luther King, Jr. Avas ego also allowed or encouraged her

unnamed supporters to widely express her concerns that she was not

getting her fair share of screenplay credit for literally rewriting Selmas

original script from page one--which I assume meant Paul Webbs

original Selma draft and most likely the multiple Selma drafts or

rewrites since 2010 were not Oscar written worthy material either.

One insider described DuVernay as disappointed about Webbs

decision to keep sole screenwriting credit. I never thought someone

would put their name on something they didnt write, but Ive learned

a lot about human nature [during this process]. Theres no point in

stirring the pot because nothing can be changed, one of Selmas'

key creative collaborators told TheWrap. Jeff SneiderThe

Wrap12-11-2014

Why do you not have a writing credit in the film?...Because Paul

Webb, the original writer, had a contract. So, the credit is completely

contractual. Its up to him whether or not he wanted to share credit and

he chose not toIs there going to be a credit battle?...Neither one of us

are WGA. Hes not guild, Im not guild, so theres no guild to get

involved. Its a purely personal choice and he made his, so we move forward. Anita BennettTheWrap12-28-2014

So now if I was WGA member or Academy member I had ample

reasons to doubt and not support any screenwriting nominations for

Selma because we have to believe that only Avas writing contributions

made the Selma script Oscar worthy. Ava should have learned from her

Selma producer Brad Pitt how he squashed a big beef with 12 Years a

Slaves Steve McQueen and John Ridley over who should get writing

credit. Brad had to silence them because he knew that any public feud

over who really contributed the most to 12 Years a Slaves script would

have seriously damage its chances at winning all its pre-Oscar awards

and its Oscar Awards. Ava should have worked out her differences with

Paul Webb privately and realized her outspoken and defiant bitching about Selma writing credits would really hurt Selmas Oscar chances.


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