In the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s 91 years of history, a superhero film has never received a nomination in the category of best picture.
“Black Panther,” Marvel’s 18th installment of its continued “Avenger’s” saga, which began in 2008, has broken the drought after the movie received a best picture nomination on the morning of Jan. 22.
Should “Black Panther” actually be recognized as one of the best films of 2018 or is this a way for the Academy to deflect some of recent heat they have taken over the past few years?
If you were to look back on the 2015 and 2016 Oscar nominations, the Academy seemed to lack diversity when in 2015 not one single person of color received a nomination, and the next year only a handful were recognized. A trending Twitter hashtag was created by “BroadwayBlack.com” Managing Editor April Reign called #OscarsSoWhite in response to the 2016 nominations.
But, a year later in 2017, the Twitter campaign against the Academy seemed to slow down when the Academy recognized more people of color in the industry, but many noticed that there seemed to be a lack of Asian and Hispanic people when it came to the nominations.
Before the 2018 nominations, former Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs guaranteed to double the number of women and people of color in the Academy’s membership by 2020, as well as change the voting structure so that members of the film community who have not been active for more than a decade will be ineligible to vote for nominees.
It has clearly shown in the last two years that the Academy has definitely become more diverse when it comes to nominations, but is the Academy only doing this to avoid another campaign against them? Do all of these films actually deserve to receive any type of recognition?
“Black Panther” is a movie about T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), the heir to the throne of the fictional country of Wakanda, who aims to lead his country’s people into a new age but is challenged by his long-lost cousin, Eric Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) who wants to use the country’s resources as a way to control the world.
Writer and director Ryan Coogler, who is also known for the “Creed” franchise, did an amazing job with this movie. Seeing the way the two main characters want to lead a country can be compared to the leadership roles of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Where King was about peace and working with others to find a way to better the community, Malcolm X wanted to create a new social order, which are the exact roles we can see in the characters of T’Challa and Killmonger, respectively.
Personally, “Black Panther” is my all-time favorite superhero movie. From the writing, to the acting and the cinematography, there is not one bad aspect of this movie. I have even been donning a “Black Panther” phone case for the last nine months to show my love for the character T’Challa. But no matter how you slice it, “Black Panther” is a superhero movie and in no way should have received a nomination for best picture.
Off the top of my head, I can think of two films more deserving of a best picture nomination over “Black Panther.”
“Beautiful Boy,” which starred Steve Carell and Timothy Chalamet and dealt with the struggles of a drug addled teen and the repercussions addicts have on their families. As well as, “If Beale Street Could Talk,” that starred KiKi Layne and Stephan James and follows a newly engaged pregnant woman from Harlem who struggles to prove her fiancé’s innocence and deals with America’s justice system.
Both of these films deal with issues we have in today’s society and give audiences something to think about when they leave the theater.
The word “film” can be described as a piece of art where a writer/director uses his/her personal beliefs to push boundaries, where a “movie” is something that appeals to a wide audience and is used to make money. When it comes down to it, “Black Panther” was a great movie, but that’s all it was.
You can certainly say that “Black Panther” pushed boundaries when mirroring characters to icons in our history, but it really is just a superhero movie from Disney that used people of color to appeal to wider audiences, a move the company has done before when making the 2009 animated movie, “The Princess and the Frog,” which debuted the first black princess.
Disney should be glad “Black Panther” has grossed $1.1 billion worldwide, a number that will soon grow when theaters bring the movie back to the big screen starting Feb. 1. Again, personally, I loved “Black Panther,” but in the end it is a movie that should not be recognized as a film, or even best picture.
Ken Downey Jr. is the Features Editor for Time OFF and Packet Publications. This is the second in a series of weekly columns focusing on arts and entertainment. He can be contacted at kdowney@newspapermediagroup.com.
