Lupita Nyoung’o Made a Beautifully Gracious Statement

Posted on March 1, 2014 at 3:59 pm

lupita_nyong_oI hope Lupita Nyoung’o wins the Best Supporting Actress award tomorrow night.  She deserves it.  But there’s another reason: I want to hear her acceptance speech.  Her speech at the Essence Awards this week was beautifully heartfelt, gracious, and wise.  She talked very frankly about the difficulty of feeling beautiful with dark skin, and how she felt when she received a fan letter from a young girl who said she had been about to try a skin-lightening cream before she saw Nyoung’o and realized that it was possible to be dark-skinned and successful.  Nyoung’o said:

What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul. It is what got Patsey in so much trouble with her master, but it is also what has kept her story alive to this day. We remember the beauty of her spirit even after the beauty of her body has faded away.

And so I hope that my presence on your screens and in the magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside.

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Do the Oscars Overlook Movies About Young People?

Posted on February 26, 2014 at 3:59 pm

My friend John Hanlon has a thoughtful piece on CNN.com about the way the Oscars and other movie awards overlook stories about young people and performances by actors in their teens and twenties.

It’s unfortunate but undeniable that award shows — and the Oscars in particular — have a history of ignoring great movies made for and about young people.

In 2013 alone, several such films received raves from critics, earning spots on “best of” lists. “The Kings of Summer” and “The Way, Way Back” scored approval ratings of 76% and 85% of critics, respectively, on RottenTomatoes.com, while “The Spectacular Now,” written by the duo behind 2009’s underappreciated “(500) Days of Summer,” earned the approval of 92% of critics.Brie_larson

“Short Term 12” received a 99% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, a higher ranking than any of this year’s best picture nominees. “Spring Breakers,” starring James Franco and Selena Gomez, may have divided some moviegoers, but the film was also lauded for its provocative depiction of disaffected youth. And it’s not for nothing that “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” was the top grossing film of 2013.

Yet not one of these movies earned a single Oscar nomination.

And he was nice enough to quote me:

Film critic Nell Minow (the Movie Mom) also observed that “Oscar voters skew older.”

“They are more interested in stories about grown-ups and more likely to have relationships with actors and filmmakers who are 30 and older,” Minow said via e-mail.

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Judy Garland’s Children Will Appear on the Oscars’ Tribute to “The Wizard of Oz”

Posted on February 24, 2014 at 6:38 pm

The Oscar broadcast this Sunday will have a special 75th anniversary tribute to “The Wizard of Oz” and all three of Judy Garland’s children will appear together: Liza Minnelli (an Oscar-winner herself for “Cabaret” and the daughter of Oscar winner Vincente Minnelli) and Joey and Lorna Luft.

Liza Minnelli’s second husband also had a parent who starred in “The Wizard of Oz.”  Producer Jack Haley, Jr. was the son of Jack Haley, who played the Tin Woodman.

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