If you have been following the Oscars, you know about Jeffrey Wright’s nomination for Best Leading Actor in American Fiction and Colman Domingo’s nomination for Rustin in the same category, for which he is the first Afro-Latino nominee in history and the second openly gay man.
You have also perhaps heard of Danielle Brooks and Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s nominations for Best Supporting Actress, for The Color Purple and The Holdovers, respectively. It is both of their first times being nominated for an Academy Award.
But among the other nominated categories are several other hidden gems in which Black artists and filmmakers have made inspiring and notable steps in artistic expression and storytelling, such as The Last Repair Shop and The Barber of Little Rock, both of which have been nominated for Best Documentary Short.
To honor these artists during Black History Month, I decided to take a different perspective in writing this article this February.
This month, I will be focusing on three outstanding Black artists whose nominations particularly demonstrate skill, expertise, and creative genius, and set an example of extensive artistic excellence for The Academy itself.
These artists are Willie D. Burton, who is nominated for Best Sound for Oppenheimer, Cord Jefferson, who is nominated for both Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction, and Misan Harriman, who is nominated for Best Live Action Short for The After.
Willie D. Burton – Audio engineer
Nomination(s): Best Sound – Oppenheimer
Burton’s career in sound mixing spans back over 35 years. Though his name may sound unfamiliar, his work features in several widely acclaimed films such as The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Seven (1995), The Green Mile (1999), and Dreamgirls (2006), for which he received the Academy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing.
Burton’s work on Oppenheimer spans beyond just recording audio. “The most important thing for me,” he stated in an interview at the film’s New York premiere, “especially with Chris [Nolan], I mean, you know, is to get the real natural sound, whatever sounds are on location…we make sure we get all the natural sounds and everything, the atomic bombs, whatever happens, I’m there to get it.”
As seen by its numerous nominations this cycle, Oppenheimer is expected by many to receive at least one award, if not many. Among these, the film is highly deserving of its nomination for Best Sound.
The innovation involved in the sound work for Oppenheimer is pretty extraordinary. Of course, there are the obvious parts—no one could record the sound of an actual atomic bomb detonating.
But along with the huge explosions and location-accurate elements, smaller, dynamic additions contribute irreplaceably to the plot progression, suspense, and overall cadence of the film.
However, Burton’s brilliant work is often glossed over or omitted from articles and news. Zack Sharf’s article for Variety Magazine on Oppenheimer’s sound work stated that viewers found it hard to hear dialogue, “…against Ludwig Göransson’s booming score and other sound design choices.”
Despite his extensive artistic background and acclaim, there is a lack of recognition for Burton’s work within mainstream media. His work and creativity have defined many favorites since the 90s but are rarely referenced, let alone during this Oscars cycle.
Burton’s nomination for Oppenheimer has made him the most nominated Black film creative in history, with eight award nominations, surpassing television producer Quincy Jones, who currently has seven.
Cord Jefferson – Writer, director
Nomination(s): Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay – American Fiction
Though American Fiction is Jefferson’s directorial debut and has won him a total of 12 awards so far, his writing has been featured in several hit TV programs to date including The Good Place and Succession.
He won an Emmy for his work as a writer and supervising producer for the HBO action program Watchmen, which aired in 2019.
Jefferson has had experience as a journalist, previously serving as an editor for Gawker, and writing for several acclaimed publications including The New York Times Magazine, USA Today, Huffington Post, and The Root.
Jefferson’s work on American Fiction is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film is based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure.
In Larry Wilmore’s podcast Black on the Air, Jefferson discusses how his background in journalism has helped him in adapting the novel for the screen. “I think that journalism really helped me with the question of ‘why now.’ Like, ‘why should this exist in [the world]?’… People are so distracted in so many ways, and it’s like, why should this be the story that they take time out of their day to sit down and watch?”
Though the film is based loosely on the novel, Jefferson’s philosophy is to preserve the text’s feeling rather than its exact words, which in itself is a meritable skill.
“I wanted the film to feel like life, in the same way that life is not comedy nor tragedy, in the same way that your life isn’t your personal life or your professional life, in the way that just everything happens at once…”
Jefferson has said that his work on the film has been a very personal experience, from the novel itself to the themes it explores.
“Just a few months before finding this novel, I had sent a script in that I was working on to some executives, and I had gotten a note that came back that said we need– they wanted me to make a character ‘blacker’…These kinds of professional struggles, what it means to be a Black writer, the limitations that people will put on Black writers… I empathize with.”
For the aspiring writers in the audience, Jefferson says, “Just keep making stuff, because the thing about our jobs, too, is that you’re only going to get better as you get older… and your work is going to blossom because of that. Just keep making stuff.”
Misan Harriman – Photographer, entrepreneur, social activist
Nomination(s): Best Live Action Short: The After
Misan Harriman is the first British-Nigerian filmmaker to be nominated for an Academy award. He is better known for his photography and as the first Black man to shoot a cover of British Vogue.
His photography documents a wide range of topics, from influential historical moments to high-profile celebrities, and The Evening Standard named him “the most talked about photographer of our times.”
As an artist who defines himself as dyslexic and neurodiverse, Harriman is a strong advocate for accommodating and accepting neurodiversity, dyslexia, and mental health awareness within the workplace.
Harriman has said that consuming art digitally has been a pivotal part of his experience as a creative, despite the popular assumption that the Internet is the death of innovative art.
In his 2023 TEDTalk, he said, “These experiences were way more than entertainment for me. I was being raised by these experiences, and I needed to share it with as many people as possible.”
“For me,” he says, “the Internet has become an endless library of the extraordinary.”
Harriman’s influence and inspiration comes from a wide array of art forms, contributing to his diverse selection of artistic endeavors and talents. Not only does his work derive influence from other films and photography, but from music, dance, and writing.
What’s more, Harriman only started his professional career as a photographer six years ago. His photography during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in London, including his famous “Why Is Ending Racism a Debate” shot, sparked widespread recognition. “I said to my wife, ‘I have run out of tears.’ And she said, ‘Look at your camera.’”
His mission to share art and images with others of course includes his own poignant photos, but also those of important Black photographers of the past, including Moneta Sleet, the first Black man to win the Pulitzer Prize for photography.
On Sleet’s striking shot of Coretta Scott King at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral, Harriman says, “It was this image that let me know that at its best, photography can let us know the work we need to do.”
However, as many of you probably are all too aware, the Academy has an infamous and widely discussed history of snubbing or sometimes completely omitting Black excellence from their voting, especially that of Black women and Black queer artists.
Over the 95 years that the Oscars has existed, only 10 awards have been presented to Black actresses. Only one of these has been for Best Actress.
To date, Ariana DeBose is the only openly queer Afro-Latina to ever win an Academy Award for an acting performance.
Even though society has made some progress in the endeavor to give Black artists their rightful place, in this case within the film world, these statistics demonstrate plainly just how much work still needs to be done.
Prejudice, stereotypes, and bias run rampant within the Academy and the awards they bestow. 100% of the 5 awards for Best Actor that have ever been awarded to Black actors have been for portraying a historical figure.
The tendency to expect a stereotype from Black and non-White actors within the Academy detracts from its true purpose and is extremely regressive to the film industry, and to artistic appreciation as a whole.
Awards should not only be given to Black artists who have demonstrated great skill in portraying a historical figure, or for experiencing hardship and struggle.
Though both of these topics are important and pertinent, equally so are diverse portrayals of Black joy and experience, which tends to be omitted from both Academy wins and societal recognition of Black cinema.
In shading the public’s awareness of what Black representation within cinema is and can be, stereotypes and prejudices are likely to keep growing within the industry, as this action perpetuates the assumption that omitting Black artists and experiences from the public eye is acceptable for anyone to do, not just popular award shows.
Especially within the rise of streaming platforms, in which experimental, indie, and unconventional films and filmmakers are beginning to be underappreciated and underfunded, representation and diversity is an aspect of modern cinema that can no longer be allowed to be ignored or snubbed.
To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.
Featured photo credits to Claire Folger, Iaste Local 695, and courtesy of Misan Harriman.
