Why Ava DuVernay's 'Selma' Oscar Snub Matters

forbes ^ | 1/15/15 | Scott Mendelson, Contributor

[SoFloFreeper]

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning. There will be plenty of analysis regarding good surprises and bad surprises....he most egregious omission is the sadly not-entirely-surprising absence of Selma’s Ava DuVernay from the five contenders nominated for Best Director....

I fear that it will affect the artistic opportunities afforded to its African-American female director in a manner different than if Selma would have come under fire under the directorial lens of a white male filmmaker.

[SoFloFreeper]

Everything is racism with the left when such films don't get all the nominations possible.

Selma is a Best Picture nominee....not good enough.

[Rummyfan]

The Oscar nominations... at heart, it’s like the nominations for Homecoming King and Queen. Oh the injustice!

[Rummyfan]

And honestly, anything with Oprah Winfrey in it should be deep-sixed!

[humblegunner]

Selma?

Wasn’t she the chick on Scooby Doo who was always losing her glasses?

[TomGuy]

I noticed that 8 movies were nominated for Best Picture. Isn’t it usually 5?

American Sniper getting several and Selma getting one nomination. The Libs will hate that.

[wideawake]

The direction in Selma, at least from the about 10% of the film I've seen from promos, looks like a very plain vanilla piece of direction.

Best Director is not supposed to be about displaying competence, but excellence.

Not that the work it honors is always excellent (it isn't), but it is meant for auteurs who take chances that work.

[JimRed]

With all due respect who gives a shit about the Oscars>

Right! The Hollywierd crowd praising one another holds no interest for me.

But not nominating this black woman shows their streak of racism and sexism! < /sarc >

[Altura Ct.]

Blah blah blah

[NorthMountain]

Selma ... Isn't that some hot hollywood chick with big hoots?

[PJ-Comix]

I've seen Selma. BORRRRIIINNNG!!! Only two interesting parts were the clubbing on the bridge and the march to Montgomery. Guess what? Archival news footage already covers that. In fact the MOST INTERESTING part of the movie was the news footage. The rest was a bore-fest.

[MisterArtery]

Selma will win best picture simply because of the subject matter.

[Tanniker Smith]

Selma is a Best Picture nominee....not good enough.

Well, industry people will tell you that the odds of it winning when its director wasn't nominated is close to nil.

That said, there are complaints every year when female directors don't get nominated, so nothing new here.

There are always five nominations and people act like 5 is a variable number that can mean 6 or 7. As I've seen none of these movies (haven't checked the list, but unless the director of Captain America or Guardians of the Galaxy were nominated, I haven't seen the movies), I'll refrain from further debate over who did a better job.

[Iron Munro]

Obama got a Peace Prize for being part black.

So why shouldn’t all the Academy Awards go to blacks?

It’s really just common sense.

/s

[Tanniker Smith]

Selma ...

Oh, yeah, I'd watch that.

[Rummyfan]

I noticed that 8 movies were nominated for Best Picture. Isn’t it usually 5?

They expanded the Best Picture category to a max of 10, depending on some percentage of the votes. Best Director is still limited to five.

[NorthMountain]

Yeah ... I pretty much figured that Salma is a lot more interesting than Selma ...

[Rummyfan]

Salma... and she does have great boobs. Whatever happened to her?

[morphing libertarian]

Few years they bumped it to a max of ten

[NorthMountain]

According to IMDB, she's still working, with several projects in various states of production. Most of her stuff looks a bit too "art-film" for my taste. She was the voice of "Kitty Softpaws" in the "Puss in Boots" movie.