The 2015 Academy Awards nominations received intense criticism due to all 20 acting nominees being white.
As the protests to demonstrate against the killing of George Floyd continue across the U. S., many have been drawing comparisons to the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s with the 2015 film Selma at the forefront of peoples’ minds.
Now actor David Oyelowo, who portrayed Martin Luther King Jr in the movie, has said that he and his castmates’ support of Black Lives Matter six years ago impacted their chances during the awards season.
The Oscar-nominated film, directed by Ava DuVernay, follows the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches led by activists James Bevel, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King Jr., and John Lewis.
Its release occurred not long after the death of black man Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a chokehold by an NYPD officer. His last words, «I can’t breath,» have become a powerful symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement—made even more prevalent by the same final words of Floyd—who died last week after an officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes.
