Oprah heats up Oscar campaign
It worked for Barack Obama, so why not “Black Panther”?
Oprah Winfrey threw her support in a big way behind the Disney/ Marvel Oscar hopeful, telling a captive audience that included more than 100 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members that “Black Panther” was “gamechanging,” “lit” and “something bigger than a movie,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Winfrey spoke earlier this week at a West Hollywood gathering that was assembled specifically to remind academy members of the Oscar-worthiness of the film, which was released back in mid-February. Besides battling voters’ short memories, the superhero/action film genre to which “Black Panther” belongs rarely gets any academy love.
But Winfrey argued that director-writer Ryan Coogler’s film broke all boundaries.
“I just wanted to say that when I first saw Black Panther, I sent an email to my friend Bobby and said, ‘Hi Bobby! Just saw it. It’s worth everything I’ve heard and more,'” she said. “‘A phenomenon in every way, on every level. Makes me tear up to think that little black children will grow up with ‘ Wakanda forever.’ It’s game-changing, it’s pridemaking, it’s dazzling, it’s phenomenal.’ That was my personal review.”
Besides Oakland native Coogler, stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan and Daniel Kaluuya were among those in attendance.
Winfrey emphasized the film’s universal appeal.
“I also know that throngs and throngs and so many people came, and came with their families, and then they went back and they got more family members, and then they went back and told their co-workers and their friends, because everybody recognized that something bigger than a movie was happening up on that screen,” she said. “We all knew — those of us who have come from the culture and the history — how lit it was. It just gave us life! It gave us life! But it was so affirming for everyone who saw it because you knew that it was bigger than this moment — it was a cultural happening — and just to be in the theater was to be a part of all of that.”
As The Hollywood Reporter pointed out, Winfrey this year could have endorsed a number of prestigious films that dealt with race relations, including “Green Book,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Widows” and “Sorry to Bother You.” Her support of “Black Panther” was a huge coup for Disney/Marvel.
Winfrey spoke at the event at the invitation of Disney chief Bob Iger, a friend of hers for about 30 years.