Oscar Buzz Deferred (FEATURE)

                                    Oscar Buzz Deferred

                                    by Kam Williams

Academy Snubs Leading Contenders from the Year of the Black Film                               

                       

            2013 was widely lauded as the “Year of the Black Film,” but you would never know it, judging by the recently-announced list of Oscar nominations. It looks like the Academy settled on 12 Years a Slave as a sort of token black representative, with Steve McQueen (Director), John Ridley (Adapted Screenplay), Chiwetel Ejiofor (Lead Actor) and Lupita Nyong’o (Supporting Actress) landing nominations. Otherwise, the only other black nominee in a major category was Barkhad “I’m the Captain now!” Abdi, the Somalia-born cab driver who made his acting debut as the pirate who took Tom Hanks hostage in Captain Phillips.

            Perhaps the most noteworthy snub was that of Fruitvale Station which had won coveted awards at both the Sundance and Cannes Festivals. Or maybe it was that of The Butler, which was my favorite film of the year. Upon that picture’s release back in August, colleague Roger Friedman was not alone in unabashedly declaring Oprah Winfrey already a lock to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

            But, in the end, Oprah wasn’t even nominated, nor was her co-star Forest Whitaker, despite his having delivered a nonpareil performance. The list of overlooked thespians arguably extends to a couple other critically-acclaimed productions featuring black principal cast members, namely, the brilliant biopics 42 and Mandela.

What happens to Oscar buzz deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or does it dream of an NAACP Image Award? COMPLETE LIST OF OSCAR NOMINATIONS BEST PICTURE American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave The Wolf of Wall Street BEST DIRECTOR Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave Alexander Payne, Nebraska David O. Russell, American Hustle Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street BEST ACTOR Christian Bale, American Hustle Bruce Dern, Nebraska Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club BEST ACTRESS Amy Adams, American Hustle Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine Sandra Bullock, Gravity Judi Dench, Philomena Meryl Streep, August: Osage County BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips Bradley Cooper, American Hustle Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave Julia Roberts, August: Osage County June Squibb, Nebraska BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY David O. Russell and Eric Warren Singer, American Hustle Woody Allen, Blue Jasmine Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club Spike Jonze, Her Bob Nelson, Nebraska BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, Before Midnight Billy Ray, Captain Philips Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, Philomena John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave Terence Winter, The Wolf of Wall Street BEST ANIMATED FEATURE The Croods Despicable Me 2 Ernest & Celestine Frozen The Wind Rises BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgium) The Great Beauty (Italy) The Hunt (Denmark) The Missing Picture (Cambodia) Omar (Palestine) BEST DOCUMENTARY – FEATURE The Act of Killing Cutie and the Boxer Dirty Wars The Square 20 Feet From Stardom BEST ORIGINAL SONG Alone Not Alone, Alone Yet Not Alone Happy, Despicable Me 2 Let It Go, Frozen The Moon Song, Her Ordinary Love, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Philippe Le Sourd, The Grandmaster Emmanuel Lubezki, Gravity Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis Phedon Papamichael, Nebraska Roger A. Deakins, Prisoners BEST COSTUME DESIGN Michael Wilkinson, American Hustle William Chang Suk Ping, The Grandmaster Catherine Martin, The Great Gatsby Michael O'Connor, The Invisible Woman Patricia Norris, 12 Years a Slave BEST DOCUMENTARY – SHORT SUBJECT CaveDigger Facing Fear Karama Has No Walls The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall BEST FILM EDITING Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten, American Hustle Christopher Rouse, Captain Phillips John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa, Dallas Buyers Club Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger, Gravity Joe Walker, 12 Years a Slave BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathew, Dallas Buyers Club Stephen Prouty, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny, The Lone Ranger BEST ORIGINAL SCORE John Williams, The Book Thief Steven Price, Gravity William Butler and Owen Pallett, Her Alexandre Desplat, Philomena Thomas Newman, Saving Mr. Banks BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Judy Becker (Production Design) and Heather Loeffler (Set Decoration), American Hustle Andy Nicholson (Production Design); Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard (Set Decoration), Gravity Catherine Martin (Production Design) and Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration), The Great Gatsby K.K. Barrett (Production Design) and Gene Serdena (Set Decoration), Her Adam Stockhausen (Production Design) and Alice Baker (Set Decoration), 12 Years a Slave BEST SHORT FILM – ANIMATED Feral Get a Horse! Mr. Hublot Possessions Room on the Broom BEST SHORT FILM – LIVE ACTION Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me), Esteban Crespo Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything), Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras Helium, Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?), Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari The Voorman Problem, Mark Gill and Baldwin Li BEST SOUND EDITING Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns, All Is Lost Oliver Tarney, Captain Phillips Glenn Freemantle, Gravity Brent Burge, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Wylie Stateman, Lone Survivor BEST SOUND MIXING Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro, Captain Phillips Gravity Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro, Gravity Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland, Inside Llewyn Davis Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow, Lone Survivor BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould, Gravity Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick, Iron Man 3 Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier, The Lone Ranger Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton, Star Trek Into Darkness