The Andrea Riseborough nomination proves misogynoir in Hollywood is thriving

Normally, we love an underdog during Oscars season. When a movie that barely anyone has heard of, let alone seen, suddenly crops up in the Academy Award nominations, it naturally attracts buzz. Add to that a British actress who’s not so famous in the USA and there’s even more attention. Yet, last week’s announcement of Andrea Risborough’s Best Actress nomination for her role playing an alcoholic single mother in indie film To Leslie has instead attracted a growing backlash, reigniting ongoing issues around racial exclusion and privilege at the Oscars amid claims she benefited unfairly from an influential A-lister campaign that helped her skip the usual routes that lead to a nomination. So much so that this week, the Academy announced that they were reviewing the nomination process to ensure no rules had been broken. 

The orchestrated celebrity support Andrea garnered from Hollywood heavy-hitters including Gwyneth Paltrow, Mia Farrow, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Sarah Paulson and Minnie Driver ( who reportedly held screenings of the film and then all vocalised their support on social media ) – could still have been a positive story of women supporting women in an industry that needs to catch up with progressive diversity and inclusion action overall. That is if only her surprise nomination wasn’t perceived as coming at the highest cost to Black female actresses – of whom there were numerous viable contenders – who were entirely snubbed from the highly-coveted, top category this year. 

Facing up to the backlash, the Academy of Motion Pictures this week announced they’ll review campaign procedures around this year’s nominees, to ensure no guidelines were violated – such as direct solicitation of votes during the crucial nomination voting period of January 12-17. After a few days consideration, they found that Andrea’s nomination should not, as her detractors have demanded, be rescinded. They said that after investigation into the nomination they could only find social media tactics that ‘caused concern’, but not enough to pull her out of the race.  It’s hardly Andrea’s fault that these two issues have collided. But that still shouldn’t quiet the calls for the Academy to do better for Black female actresses after decades of disappointment.        

How is it possible that the more exceptional Black women become in Hollywood, the more we are ignored?

What’s most inexcusable about this year’s nominations triggering a fresh wave of blocking out Black women is that it’s happened despite 2022 being a year of dazzlingly impressive and commercially-successful performances from multiple Black actresses. Droves of film fans expected to see Viola Davis Oscar-nominated for her title role in the groundbreaking The Woman King, or Danielle Deadwyler for her moving portrayal of a justice-seeking mother in Till – whom The Times  chief film critic believes should have been nominated. And it’s staggering that Letitia Wright was snubbed across the entire awards season despite levelling up as the incredible female hero of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. It was a total triumph for a then-27-year-old Black British actress to hold an 841 million USD-earning sequel together after the tragic loss of its title star Chadwick Boseman to cancer, and yet the industry has behaved as if she doesn’t exist.

With that context, I couldn’t click ‘Like’ fast enough on the Instagram post from Till’s Black female director Chinonye Chukwu, who called out Hollywood’s misogynoir after her film was completely overlooked this year, declaring her pride and resistance despite us living ‘in a world and working in industries that are so aggressively committed to upholding whiteness and perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards black women’.