Criticizing “unabashed misogyny towards Black women,” director Chinonye Chukwu has shared his views.
A picture of Chukwu posing with civil rights leader Myrlie Evers-Williams at the movie’s Los Angeles premiere in October 2022 was shared by the actress hours after the 95th Academy Prizes nominations were announced on Tuesday.
Her renowned film was not nominated for any awards.
Actor Jayme Lawson portrays Evers-Williams in the film Till.
The filmmaker captioned the image, saying, “We live in a world and work in industries that are so aggressively committed to upholding whiteness and perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards Black women.”
“And yet,” Chukwu added in her caption. “I am forever in gratitude for the greatest lesson of my life – regardless of any challenges or obstacles, I will always have the power to cultivate my own joy, and it is this joy that will continue to be one of my greatest forms of resistance.”
Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-quest Mobley’s for justice following his 1955 murder are the subject of the film Till, which did not get any Oscar nominations on Tuesday.
It has however, gotten nominations for 2023 BAFTA Awards and the forthcoming Screen Actors Guild Awards for main actress Danielle Deadwyler.
Late last year, at the commencement of award season, Deadwyler also won the Gotham Award for Outstanding Lead Performance.
Black actors were excluded from the Best Actress Oscar race this year, including Viola Davis, who got nominations at the Golden Globes and the SAG Awards
The five actors up for Best Actress by the Academy on Tuesday were Cate Blanchett (Tár), Ana de Armas (Blonde), Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie), Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans), and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once).
A year in which no women were nominated for the Best Filmmaker Academy Award, after a female director won the award in each of the previous two years, is highlighted by Till’s absence from the 2023 Oscar nominations.
After Jane Campion won the prize in 2022 for The Power of the Dog, making her the third woman to ever win Best Director, there were no female nominees for the Oscars’ Best Director category.
When Chloé Zhao won the award in 2021 for Nomadland, she became only the second woman to do so, while Kathryn Bigelow created history when she won in 2010 for The Hurt Locker.
READ MORE: ‘I wouldn’t be surprised’: Pundit makes Mikel Arteta claim