Jessica Chastain Calls Out Oscars for Not Nominating Viola Davis and 'Woman King': 'I Mean, Come On'

"Someone had to say it," the actress said of pointing out the Oscars snub

Jessica Chastain is voicing her support for Viola Davis and The Woman King.

Chastain paid tribute to her The Help costar Davis, 57, at the 48th Chaplin Award Gala presented by Film at Lincoln Center on Monday night in New York City. During her speech at the ceremony, Chastain called out the Academy Awards for excluding Davis and The Woman King (directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, who was also at the event) from its nominations.

The film received no nominations despite nods at the Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards and SAG Awards.

"When I see a movie like The Woman King, it has Viola's fingerprints all over it. A movie like that with a female director and a cast of powerful Black female leads can get made in Hollywood today because of Viola's lifelong advocacy for women of color. Maybe one day a movie like that can get nominated for an Oscar," Chastain, 46, said, according to IndieWire.

Afterward, she told the outlet, "Someone had to say it. I mean, come on. Not a single Oscar nomination for that movie? There had to be some Academy members in that room, right?"

Related:Jessica Chastain Recalls Eating Grits with Viola Davis on The Help: 'They Wanted Us Curvier' (Exclusive)

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Davis has four Oscar nominations to her name and won Best Supporting Actress for Fences in 2017. Chastain has been nominated three times and won Best Actress last year for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

At this year's Academy Awards in March, Chastain and Halle Berry — the first Black actress to ever win Best Actress — presented this year's Best Actress trophy to Everything Everywhere All at Once's Michelle Yeoh, who made history as the first Asian actress to win the award. The other four nominees in the category were Cate Blanchett (Tár), Ana de Armas (Blonde), Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie) and Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans).

Prince-Bythewood told PEOPLE in March about the exclusion, "I'll never get over it, because what happened was egregious and ... it speaks to such a bigger issue in our industry."

"But," she added, "[it also speaks to] who I am, the people around me, these actors. We will never take our foot off the gas. We're ready to do something next. We're ready to do something as big, we're ready to do something together. So we always keep that energy no matter what happens."

The Woman King is currently streaming on Netflix.

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