(Photo Credit: Google Images)
This morning, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences and actor Chris Hemsworth announced the nominees for the 2014 Academy Awards. Nominees from the African Diaspora in the performance categories included Chiwetel Ejiofor (Best Actor) for 12 Years a Slave, Somalian-American Barkhad Abdi (Best Supporting Actor) for Captain Phillips and Lupita Nyong’o (Best Supporting Actress) for 12 Years a Slave. Steve McQueen received a best director nomination for 12 Years a Slave which also received a best picture nomination. Like McQueen, Alfonso Cuarón was nominated for best director for Gravity, which also received a best picture nomination.
Musician Pharrell Williams received a nomination for Best Original Song for ‘Happy’ from the film Frozen. U2 was also nominated in the same category for the song ‘Ordinary Love’ from the critically-acclaimed film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Interestingly enough, there were no nominations for Idris Elba or Naomie Harris the same film.
(Photo Credit: Nerdist)
Once again, Lee Daniels film, The Butler was completely shut out as was the case for the 2014 Golden Globes, making us wonder whose feathers much beloved writer-director Lee Daniels ruffled such that Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker are not being celebrated this awards season, at least by mainstream award shows. Tom Hanks did not receive a nomination for Best Actor for his role in Captain Phillips, a film nominated for Best Picture and whose co-star Abdi is nominated in the supporting actor category.
The Academy Awards will air on ABC on March 2nd.
See the entire list of nominees at Oscar.go.com.
This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of the award-winning news site The Burton Wire. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
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