Nominated for Nothing: The Academy is on the wrong side of history with The Woman King snub
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They're destined to score zero Academy Awards, but they won our attention throughout a year (and awards season) like no other. Ahead of the 95th Oscars ceremony on March 12, EW is breaking down the year's best movies, performances, and directorial achievements that were nominated for nothing.
The film: On all fronts, the movie was an impressive cinematic feat, bringing the incredible real-life story of the all-female Agojie fighters to the big screen in a way that honored them. Set in the 1820s in the West African kingdom of Dahomey, the film centers on General Nanisca (Viola Davis) as she trains a new generation of warriors. Spanning training montages, emotional moments, and massive, intricate battle scenes, The Woman King could have landed multiple nominations across major categories — and that doesn't account for the dynamic costumes created by Gersha Phillips. Of the film's many great performances, Davis' portrayal of the fearsome and haunted Nanisca was the most discussed; from a physical and emotional standpoint, the EGOT winner does some of her best work here. But Lashana Lynch delivered a standout performance as well, mixing humor and seriousness as veteran soldier Izogie.
Ilze Kitshoff/TriStar Pictures Lashana Lynch, Viola Davis, Shelia Atim in 'The Woman King'
Why it wasn't nominated: Despite being a critical and box-office success, there was quite a bit working against The Woman King. Drama is king, after all, when it comes to the Academy's love, so genre films often have a harder time cracking major categories like Best Actress. And in this year's race (a typically crowded field), the surprise nomination of Andrea Riseborough complicated things. But when taking into account the film's complete snub (along with that of Till), issues of representation and #OscarsSoWhite demands discussion. No Black woman has ever been nominated for Best Director, a run that could have been broken by The Woman King's Gina Prince-Bythewood; the call to make history apparently wasn't enough.
Throughout the awards cycle, Davis and Prince-Bythewood both shared how hard it was for them just to get the film made. Even with successes like Black Panther, Get Out, and Girls Trip, there's a belief that Black films don't travel or don't garner overall appeal. In an opinion piece for The Hollywood Reporter, Prince-Bythewood wrote, "As I moved through this awards season, I was struck by the Academy members who simply didn't want to see the film. People thought it was a compliment at some of our screenings to tell me they had to be dragged there, because they didn't think it was a film for them." A major issue is that many didn't see The Woman King, both figuratively and literally.
TriStar Pictures Viola Davis in 'The Woman King'
Why history will remember it better than the Academy did: Aside from the powerful performances from its cast (particularly Davis) and the film's epic story, the film's significance includes its box-office success: On opening weekend, it performed well beyond expectations, earning $19 million. "Black women can be at the center of a narrative and we can lead a global box office and make movies that are meaningful to everybody," Davis told EW at the time. The Woman King got people to show up in theaters when doing so was still tentative.
Hopefully meeting the Agojie inspires storytellers to be just as they are. To bask in its success by creating more action epics about Black women or putting characters we rarely see in the types of films where our white counterparts have thrived in for decades.
EW's countdown to the 2023 Oscars has everything you're looking for, from our expert predictions and in-depth Awardist interviews with this year's nominees to nostalgia and our takes on the movies and actors we wish had gotten more Oscars love. You can check it all out at The Awardist.
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