The 81st Oscar Awards 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, the story about the Muslim children of Mumbai, co-directed by Indian-born Loveleen Tandan. [Unfortunately, director Danny Boyle's media coverage is overshadowing Tandan's contribution].
There's also Trouble The Water, 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 [granddaughter of Lena Horne] didn't get any nods for her script Rachel Getting Married, but one of the actresses, Anne Hathaway, got a Best Actress nod. Then there's Frozen River, 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 and Taraji P. Henson 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?
Keith Josef Adkins is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and social commentator.