Black History Month: Spotlight on Octavia Spencer

by Steven Fenton

On February 26, 2012, Octavia Spencer won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her endearing performance as the feisty Minny Jackson in Tate Taylor’s The Help. With her win, Spencer joined an elite group, becoming just the sixth black actress to win an acting Oscar (and only the seventh overall, if you count Irene Cara’s Original Song win for Flashdance, since she also starred in the film). Prior to 2011, Spencer had worked steadily since the mid-90s, gaining a reputation as a warm and generous co-star and a beloved character actress. So her win in February 2012 felt like an authentic opportunity for the academy to recognize an industry favorite.

Spencer was an indomitable force in the 2011 awards season, snatching wins at the Critics Choice, SAG awards, Globe Globes, and BAFTA, and beating out a talented crop of women in sensational breakout performances, including: Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), Shailene Woodley (The Descendants), and Spencer’s co-star, Jessica Chastain (who had taken both the LA and NY Film Critics awards for her outstanding trio of performances in The Help, Take Shelter, and Tree of Life). Spencer’s Oscar win was a foregone conclusion early in the race. The real competition that was year between Viola Davis and Meryl Streep in Leading Actress. Viola could have made history that night as the second black woman to win in lead, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, Spencer walked away with The Help’s only win that evening. Little did we know then, Octavia’s Oscar story wasn’t over, and she definitely wasn’t done making history...

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3 Days Until Oscar -- multiple wins without a Best Picture Nod

With the seismic shift of the expanded best picture field in 2009, certain forms of Oscar trivia seem dead or at least on life support. Foxcatcher proved you could still be a "lone director" nominee for a non Best Picture player, and Carol proved you could still get a big swath of nominations but miss out on placing in the top category. But nearly all the records involving films that weren't nominated for Best Picture will not be broken now; when Oscar notices you in a big way these days, you're also likely to achieve that highest distinction of being a Best Picture nominee.

But with 3 being the magic number today, let's take a look back at the rare cases of films that won 3 or more Oscars that were not nominated for Best Picture. The only film that could theoretically join this list this year is Jackie (the most nominated film that isn't up for Best Picture) but it would have to win all three of its bids! 

The 18 Biggest Oscar Winners That Were NOT
Nominated for Best Picture
(current titles for categories used in this list though some have changed) 

01 Five Oscar wins from six nominations
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design. It lost only Best Actor but mysteriously wasn't nominated for Picture or Director despite obvious widespread love for it. But then, 1952 was among the very strangest of Oscar years for multiple reasons. 

Curiously Kirk Douglas also leads one of the three films tied for runner up in this particular list...

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A Look at the Animated Shorts

Eric here with a look at the animated shorts. If you missed previous nominated shorts coverage, Glenn investigated the documentary options, I looked at the live action shorts, and Nathaniel interviewed the director of Sing.

Pros and cons and predictions after the jump...

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Director Richard Linklater Fights Against Anti-Transgender Bathroom Bills With PSA

If you thought the gorgeous cadre of jocks in Everybody Wants Some!! was the extent of what Texan ally Richard Linklater had to offer in all things LGBT this past year, be sure to take a look at his recent PSA: "Taking A Seat, Making A Stand." Acting in solidarity with the transgender community, he steps up his game with his most recent project in a major way. Linklater teamed up with the I Pee With LGBT campaign to produce this bright and sharp comic short in response to the anti-transgender bathroom bill that’s currently awaiting a vote in the Texas legislature – S.B. 6, for those keeping track of the insidious discrimination measures spreading across America’s statehouses. As President Trump reverses course on establishing federal protections for transgender minors, this urgent, inclusively common sense message speaks to our shared humanity in the face of hate, and deserves to be loudly repeated more and more by the day.

What role do you think players in the motion picture industry should take within the climate of today’s increasingly omnipresent political landscape?

Links: Atomic Blonde, Underwater Armageddon, La La Lynch,

Pajiba at what point exactly did Dev Patel get hot?
Variety Billy Brown, who previously sexed up Viola on How to Get Away with Murder, will costar with Taraji P Henson in the new thriller Proud Mary which has nothing to do with Tina Turner 
/Film Van Helsing reboot gets a new writer 
Coming Soon Charlize Theron's Coldest City gets a title change. It's now Atomic Blonde
NYT Whoa. I thought that little kid (Shailene Woodley's boy) on Big Little Lies looked familiar. Turns out he's that child theater critic who does all the popular Broadway Youtube reviews

 

Boy Culture interviews old Hollywood actor Carleton Carpenter who talks Debbie Reynolds, Cary Grant and being bisexual in Hollywood in a new memoir called "The Absolute Joy of Work"
The Playlist has ranked every best picture nominee of the 21st century. Weirdly they made a huge accounting error that kept Moulin Rouge! out of the #1 spot by a truly embarrassing margin
MNPP the King Arthur trailer is obsessed with crotches
Interview Evanna Lynch, Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, is interviewed about her post Potter career by another Potter alum 
The New Yorker looks at Harry Belafonte's 1956 mega hit "Day-O" and the social power of song 
i09 a new movie is begin described as "Underwater Armageddon."  Kristen Stewart is in talks to headline
AV Club the law that allowed actors to have their ages hidden from IMDb is probably in danger of being overturned 
Comics Alliance the proposed X-Men TV series has not announced a list of characters yet but Blink will be amoung them. Actress Jamie Chung has been cast in the role 
Screen Crush is stating that Logan has a post-credits scene. If there is one it most definitely did not screen for critics as I waited until the lights came up. (I generally stay for credits... and did so before post-credit scenes were a regular thing)
Film School Rejects the use of primary color in La La Land 

Video To Go
La La Land as directed by David Lynch (file under: the internet is fun) and a iphone rehearsal for La La Land's opening number filmed in a  parking lot