There’s no denying that Marvel’s « Black Panther » is a worldwide phenomenon, but when it comes to the Oscars, Marvel wants the top prize…
There’s no denying that Marvel’s « Black Panther » is a worldwide phenomenon, but when it comes to the Oscars, Marvel wants the top prize — best picture — over a « popular film » nomination.
Star Chadwick Boseman, who plays the title character in the movie, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter ‘s « Awards Chatter » podcast that the movie will campaign for best picture rather than the new « achievement in popular film » category that will be introduced at the 2019 Oscars.
« We don’t know what it [the new prize] is, so I don’t know whether to be happy about it or not, » Boseman told THR. « What I can say is that there’s no campaign [that we are mounting] for popular film; like, if there’s a campaign, it’s for best picture, and that’s all there is to it. »
The Los Angeles Times recently reported that Marvel Studios is preparing to launch a serious Oscar campaign for the first time to get « Black Panther » a best picture nomination. According to the Times, Disney hired veteran Oscars strategist Cynthia Swartz to lead a best-picture campaign backed by significant funding from Marvel.
« A good movie is a good movie, and clearly it doesn’t matter how much money a movie makes in order for it to be ‘a good movie’ [in the minds of Academy members] because if [it did], the movies that get nominated and win [which have tended in recent years to not be blockbusters] wouldn’t get nominated, » Boseman continued. « And if it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter on both sides. For my money, the only thing that matters is the level of difficulty. »
Boseman added that what « Black Panther » did — creating its own world, culture, politics, and more — was « very difficult. »
« I dare any movie to try to compare to the [level of] difficulty of this one, » he said. « And the fact that so many people liked it — if you just say it’s [merely] popular, that’s elitist. »
« Black Panther » grossed over $700 million domestically and $1.3 billion worldwide, and has a 97% critic score on review-aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
