There’s almost always at least one upset at the Academy Awards. In 2017 for example, it was Moonlight scoring Best Picture – with the award being accidentally given to La La Land before the correction came through. That win left many ecstatic – a film about Black masculinity winning the biggest award at the Oscars, directed by a Black man and featuring a stellar black cast? A huge win for progress.
[jwplayer Xo5Pp7Pz]
This year, Green Book won Best Picture. Again, it was a shock – Roma and The Favourite were hot contenders, as well as A Star Is Born. But this time, the shock was coupled with a disappointment for many.
The reaction to Green Book winning could’ve been more enthusiastic tbh pic.twitter.com/NfmsNMQTvb
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 25, 2019
So @_MarcusD3_ captured Chadwick Boseman’s face when Green Book won, the perfect reaction gif pic.twitter.com/x8uAV66tEc
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 25, 2019
Black KkKlansman director Spike Lee was first to express his disappointment, attempting to walk out of the theatre after the announcement, then telling press after the show that “refs made a bad call”.
Then social media followed. The general conversation online argued that the film was a look at the Black experience through the eyes of white people and had a soft approach to racism – offering an easily digestible take on race relations for white people looking to assuage guilt.
https://twitter.com/lgbtqfc/status/1099888960770314240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fnews%2F2019-02-25%2Fgreen-book-oscars-2019-best-picture-why-people-are-upset%2F10848072
https://twitter.com/ira/status/1099885809748996097?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1099885809748996097&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2019%2Ffilm%2Fnews%2Fgreen-book-win-best-picture-oscars-twitter-reacts-1203149061%2F
No disrespect to Green Book at the #Oscars, but many of us in the black community would like to see greater recognition for movies about the black experience and not just for movies that make the black experience comfortable for white audiences.pic.twitter.com/vOdNEmx53X
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) February 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/rgay/status/1100084647218667521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1100084647218667521&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2019%2Ffilm%2Fnews%2Fgreen-book-win-best-picture-oscars-twitter-reacts-1203149061%2F
Green Book was not for Black people.
It was to make white people feel good about doing little to stop racism beyond the interpersonal.
Also, the other movies were better.
ALSO, Regina, Ruth, Spike & more amazing Black folks won last night so I’m done talmbout Green a Book.
— brittany packnett cunningham (she/her). (@MsPackyetti) February 25, 2019
“Green Book is an inspirational tale of how we can end racism if everyone, regardless of background, just works together. So please welcome the stage the producers of Green Book: 1000 white guys who were all born in 1961” pic.twitter.com/XW6nzqJc9q
— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) February 25, 2019
There was also the film’s production itself. It was written by Nick Vallelonga, who was the son of white driver Tony “Lip” Vallelonga, the protagonist of the film, a man who was paid to escort Black concert pianist Dr Don Shirley on a concert tour of America’s South. However, Dr. Shirley’s family have criticised the script, saying it amounted to a “symphony of lies” in an interview with Shadow & Act. They went on to argue that the film depicted Dr Shirley as “embarrassed by his blackness” – something that was particularly offensive to them considering Shirley was active in the Civil Rights movement of the 60s, not to mention close with Dr Martin Luther King.
The family also weren’t consulted or contacted at all during the writing of the script or production of the film.
Considering two films (Black KkKlansman, Black Panther) that were widely praised for portraying the Black experience from the perspective of Black people (and featuring black men and women behind the scenes, forming the films) were also up for Best Picture, it made Green Book winning all the more controversial.
