'The Woman King' director Gina Prince-Bythewood addresses absence of Black nominees for Oscars

American film director and screenwriter Gina Prince-Bythewood addressed the lack of Black representation among this year’s Oscar nominees at the NAACP Image Awards on Saturday evening.

In an essay for The Hollywood Reporter, The Woman King director called the Academy Awards season “an eye-opener” and that “the Academy made a very loud statement, and for me to stay quiet is to accept that statement.”

Prince-Bythewood’s historical drama The Woman King was completely ignored by the Academy Awards, despite landing several precursor nominations across other awards bodies and craft institutions.

“We know the issues exist, but they felt amplified this year,” Prince-Bythewood told Variety senior entertainment writer Angelique Jackson on the red carpet, discussing her essay. 

“The responses have been really amazing. The number of people that have reached out and sharing it — whole companies are sharing it — and then going to the BAFTAs and having people reference it as well, there’s no denying some of the things I put in and people were able to see firsthand what happened.”

“My hope is change,” Prince-Bythewood continued. “It can’t just be talking about it and then forgetting it, because that’s what happens cyclically. We need concrete change.”

The Woman King, directed by Prince-Bythewood and starring Viola Davis, is based on the true events that took place during the 18th and 19th centuries in the African Kingdom of Dahomey. 

While the film received critical acclaim and recognition from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, the Screen Actors Guild, the Critics’ Choice Association and the Golden Globes, it did not receive a single Academy Award nomination. No Black woman has ever been nominated for best director.