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2012
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The 81st Oscar Awards [28] will air Sunday and the heat is on. Like usual, the "colored" component to the Oscars is low, but let's illuminate what is there. And, interestingly enough, there's quite a few this time around. There's the Best Picture and Director nominee Slumdog Millionaire [29], the story about the Muslim children of Mumbai, co-directed by Indian-born Loveleen Tandan [30]. [Unfortunately, director Danny Boyle's media coverage is overshadowing Tandan's contribution].
There's also Trouble The Water [31], the nominated documentary that follows a Lower Ninth family before and after Hurricane Katrina. Although Trouble spotlights an African-American family, it's conceived and directed by white filmmakers. Jenny Lumet [32] [granddaughter of Lena Horne] didn't get any nods for her script Rachel Getting Married [33], but one of the actresses, Anne Hathaway, got a Best Actress nod. Then there's Frozen River [34], the nominated story of two women—one white, the other Native American—who decide to smuggle immigrants into the U.S. from Canada to make extra money. Although the film centers around a Native American character and issues that affect many poor people of color, it's written and directed by a white filmmaker.
But the big to-do this is year is the Best Supporting Actress category—Viola Davis [35] and Taraji P. Henson [36] are both nominated. Davis for her role as the brutally-honest mother in Doubt; Henson for her portrayal of the heart-of-gold foster mother in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. So see, there are a few pieces of color in this year's Oscar extravaganza. The glitch, more or less, is that artists of color are not necessarily being nominated for projects of color, and vice-versa. Has there ever been an Oscar-winning American film written, directed and performed by people of color?
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