Where’s Ryan Coogler’s Oscar?
The auteur behind CREED and BLACK PANTHER is being consistently overlooked by The Academy.
Ryan Coogler hasn’t made a bad film. His three movies have received eight Academy Award nominations, an average score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a combined box office gross of $1.537BN.
But Coogler doesn’t have an Oscar. He hasn’t even been nominated yet.
Critics argue that the director is young and will likely get his due later on if he continues to produce critically and commercially successful films. Others believe that films like Creed (2016) and Black Panther (2018) were never going to receive a lot of Academy recognition because one’s part of the Rocky franchise and the other’s a Marvel superhero movie.
The problem is those arguments don’t make sense.
In 2013, Coogler premiered his first feature-length film, Fruitvale Station, at The Sundance Film Festival. Written and directed by Coogler, it stars Michael B. Jordan as Oscar Grant on his last day alive in 2009 as he tries to find a job, connect with his daughter, and make sense of life after being released from prison… before he’s killed by a police officer in Oakland.
The film couldn’t have been more relevant during its time of release and continues to be relevant today, highlighting problems with the US prison system and police brutality.
“The intimacy of debut writer-director Ryan Coogler’s approach to the film and the no-frills, believably real quality of the main performances combine to drive the senselessness of Oscar’s killing home with visceral impact.” — Bruce Ingram, The Chicago Sun-Times
Fruitvale Station made $17.4M on a budget of $900,000, received an aggregated 94% Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, won countless awards on the festival circuit… but ultimately received zero Academy Award nominations.
“… the snub of Fruitvale is particularly disappointing. Unlike most of the films appearing among the Best Picture nominees, this one speaks directly to the complexities of the here and now: It was just five years ago that Oscar Grant, the subject of Coogler’s moving character study, was shot and killed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer, and the film’s release coincided eerily with the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin.” — Aisha Harris, Slate
At 26, perhaps Coogler was too young for his first Oscar nomination? But the following year, at the age of 29, Damien Chazelle received his first Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ for Whiplash, a film about a college boy dealing with a tough music teacher.
In 2015, Coogler wrote and directed his second movie, Creed, a spin-off of to the Rocky franchise following Adonis Creed, son of Apollo, as he attempts to make a name for himself in the sport of boxing with the help of former champ Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone)
“Hot damn! Fruitvale Station director Coogler, 29, turbocharges the Rocky franchise. Jordan is stellar. And so irresistible is Stallone’s blend of tough and tender that Oscar should give him points. Yo, Academy!” — Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
A worldwide box office total of $173.6 M on a budget of $35M, 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, and countless more awards all added up to one Oscar nomination… for Sylvester Stallone. Coogler’s lack of a nomination added fuel to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.
Sure, Stallone has been nominated in the acting category before, back when Rocky was released in 1976. However, Creed was an absolute knockout (pardon the pun) and Coogler surely played a major part bringing out Stallone’s first award-worthy performance in decades.
A year later, Chazelle released La La Land (2016) and received an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ and won the Oscar for ‘Best Director’.
And finally, the cultural phenomenon that is Black Panther. Released in 2018, this Marvel blockbuster made box office history with a worldwide total of $1.347BN. It proudly holds a Rotten Tomatoes score of 97% and became the first superhero film in history to be nominated for the Academy Award for ‘Best Picture’.
“Whether or not this is the best film Marvel Studios has made to date-and it is clearly in the discussion-it is by far the most thought-provoking.” — Christopher Orr, The Atlantic.
Nominated for seven Academy Awards in total, Black Panther is a monumental success but, yet again, Coogler didn’t receive a nomination for writing or directing.
One could argue that Marvel projects have a formula and the studio has considerable control over each film, but Black Panther is most certainly “a Ryan Coogler movie”. it grounds itself by opening and closing in Oakland, where Fruitvale Station took place and dives deep into the theme of tradition versus change. Other themes Coogler tackles include African identity, globalism, and the absence of fathers — which also drove the plot of Creed.
The Academy clearly recognises what a groundbreaking film Black Panther became, but it’s unfortunately chosen to ignore one of the major creative forces that made it so unique.
Ryan Coogler isn’t too young for an Oscar.
Damien Chazelle is an incredible young filmmaker and the Academy has honoured his work with Oscars, so why not Coogler? The two are almost the same age and have the same number of critically and financially successful films under their belts, so what’s the difference?
Coogler has also proven that films in franchises, even superhero films, can be so good that the Academy has no choice but to nominate them for awards.
Consider this:
Spike Lee has been making culturally relevant and critically acclaimed films for over 30 years. This week he was nominated for Best Director and Best Picture for BlacKkKlansman (2018). This is the first time he’s been nominated in these categories. Ever.
The Academy has a way of ignoring great work from people of colour — and they may be (slowly) improving — but if they hope to remain relevant they have to do more than nominate the most popular film of the year. They have to recognize the talent that got it there.
Coogler shouldn’t have to wait three decades for an Oscar nomination. He’s a writer-director powerhouse who’s infused commercially successful films with difficult social and cultural themes. If the Academy wants to shed its public perception as a racist institution then it needs to give Oscars to artists who deserve them, when they deserve them.
Artists like Ryan Coogler.
Header image via Texas Public Radio.
