During an interview with The Daily Beast director Spike Lee had some choice words in regards to Selma being snubbed at the Oscars. The powerful Martin Luther King biopic was well-received and figured to be in the running in all the major categories — most notably Best Actor and Best Director, however, the film only got nominations for Best Picture and Best Song.
“Join the club!” Lee chuckled, before getting serious. “But that doesn’t diminish the film. Nobody’s talking about motherfuckin’ Driving Miss Daisy. That film is not being taught in film schools all across the world like Do the Right Thing is. Nobody’s discussing Driving Miss Motherfuckin’ Daisy. So if I saw Ava today I’d say, ‘You know what? Fuck ’em. You made a very good film, so feel good about that and start working on the next one.”
Spike’s assessment is spot-on. Sometimes the movies that stand the test of time are often overlooked by their peers upon creation. This snub isn’t new and shouldn’t be a surprise in my summation. Selma is currently the most talked about movie out, besides American Sniper, so world-of-mouth may be a consolation, but it’s everlasting.
“Anyone who thinks this year was gonna be like last year is retarded,” said Lee. “There were a lot of black folks up there with 12 Years a Slave, Steve [McQueen], Lupita [Nyong’o], Pharrell. It’s in cycles of every 10 years. Once every 10 years or so I get calls from journalists about how people are finally accepting black films. Before last year, it was the year [in 2002] with Halle Berry, Denzel [Washington], and Sidney Poitier. It’s a 10-year cycle. So I don’t start doing backflips when it happens.”
