The Celluloid Color LIne

Today, the nominations for the 78th annual Academy Awards were announced. The Best actor nominations were as follows:

Joaquin Phoenix, "Walk the Line"
Heath Ledger, " Brokeback Mountain"
Philip Seymouf Hoffman, "Capote"
David Straithairn, "Good Night and Good Luck"
Terrence Howard, "Hustle and Flow"

I have many questions about the Howard nomination and others. Bear with me here.


This may be an affirmative action nomination. In the wake of Freeman and Foxx's wins not long after Halle and Denzel's, did the academy really want to hear the arguments and criticisms about how they took three steps back by not nominating any blacks after making so much progress in recent years? I don't know. We all know that Jesse and Al would have been out there if there had been no black nominations. BUT, we have to wonder if this is a good nomination for the following reasons.

I think that Hustle and Flow was good. T Howard did really well. But was Howard's performance one of the best of the year? I don't know. Cheadle was as good in Crash. Jeffery Wright was better in Syriana. Is the academy saying that not only will we recognize a black actor, but we will recognize a low budget black film, which should really assuage the black people this time? Is the academy willing to sacrifice one best actor or best actress nomination out of five each year just to preemptively hush our mouths? I don't know.

This year's other nominations make me question the Howard nomination. Clooney was nominated for "Syriana", and Matt Dillon was nominated for "Crash". Both of these pictures had ensemble casts, and in BOTH, the black men, Wright and Cheadle were the central figures that tied the ensemble casts together. How does one select one performance over another for an Oscar nomination in the case of an ensemble cast? If this is possible, weren't Wright and Cheadle's performances as good as or better than Clooney and Dillon's? I objectively posit that yes, their performances were as good or better, and if one is to single out performances from an ensemble cast to laud, Cheadle and Wright's were equally worthy if not more worthy than the two nominated guys.

Then again, I may be speaking the prejudice that a movie has to be more "high art" (Capote, Goodnight and Good Luck) than "organic" (Hustle and Flow) in order to be noteworthy. Still, I really have to wonder about Howard's status as a true Oscar worthy performance. There were better black performances from more difficult roles in superior films. Did he receive the minority nod for 2005? I think so.

Intellectual honesty time. In your heart, do you really believe that Howard walks away with the statue a month from now? Do you really think that the academy believes that he will win? I say no to both. I remember really thinking that Denzel would win back in '93 for Malcolm X. To me, this shows that Howard was not nominated with the intention to win, but with an eye for affirmative action.

If you take all this as true, the final question becomes, is this nomination a bad thing for black film and actors? Would we rather be ignored, or thrown a pacifier? Again, I don't know. I'm just the question asker.