Tag: oscars

Daniel Kaluuya’s mom and her awkward reaction to his Oscars speech became an instant meme

Here’s the meme of the night.

Daniel Kaluuya’s Oscars speech after winning Best Supporting Actor for his role in Judas and the Black Messiah had quite a surprising moment.

After delivering an emotional, awesome speech that touched on so many topics, from the thank yous to the “power of unity” and “there’s so much work to do,” he pivoted to celebrating life.

“Like, it’s incredible, my mom met my dad, they had sex,” he said, with his mom RIGHT THERE. “It’s amazing!”

His mom’s reaction was caught on camera, and although we didn’t hear what she said, the look on her face said it all, which seemed to include a “Wait, what did he just say?” moment.

Actually, someone read lips (see below) and she might have said, “What is he talking about?”

Of course, it became a meme.

Here’s the speech:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-xZDBohxhE

And some memes:

He then had this to say to reporters:

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Why everyone’s complaining about the bizarre 2021 Oscars ending, explained

Fans are NOT happy about this.

Welcome to FTW Explains, a guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. Today, we’re breaking down the ending to the 2021 Oscars and explain why it feels like everyone’s mad about it.

That’s right, we have another Oscars ending that has turned into quite a thing. And in general, it was an Oscars pretty much like no other, with the ceremony celebrating the best in movies in Los Angeles’s Union Station, with nominees sitting at tables and some awkward moments.

But if you’re waking up this morning and wondering why there’s so much chatter about the ending, here you go.

What, did someone read the wrong winner again?

Nope, it wasn’t a La La Land debacle.

What could be weirder than that?

It had to do with the order of the awards. In years past, with some exceptions, the whole night leads up to the best actress and actor categories, best director and then it all crescendos to Best Picture.

I’m guessing that’s not what happened?

You nailed it. Best Picture got handed out to Nomadland … but THEN came best actress (Frances McDormand, for Nomadland) and best actor as the night’s final award.

What’s the big deal with that?

Because the late Chadwick Boseman was nominated for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and it felt like it was all but guaranteed that the terrific actor would be honored by his peers with an award for an incredible career that was cut way too short last year.

Did he win?

No. In a surprise, Sir Anthony Hopkins did for The Father. The thing is, he wasn’t there, so presenter Joaquin Phoenix accepted the award on his behalf, and that was the end of the night, an anticlimactic finale to say the least.

You think the producers changed the order because they thought Boseman was going to win?

Possibly. It would make sense, right? What an ending that would have been, especially after Boseman won the Golden Globe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a4zH0kmPFo

I’m not taking ANYTHING away from Hopkins here. His performance was incredible. It’s just that if the planners of the evening thought Boseman would win and would create an all-time great moment, that backfired.

What did Hopkins eventually say?

He took to Instagram to deliver a speech early Monday morning and he immediately paid tribute to Boseman.

https://www.instagram.com/p/COHpbqpHcqY/?utm_source=ig_embed

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Kevin Durant is an executive producer on an Oscar nominated film

Kevin Durant is an EP on the Oscar nominated ‘Two Distant Strangers’ film.

Brooklyn Nets star, Kevin Durant, teamed up with Mike Conley of the Utah Jazz to produce the film “Two Distant Strangers” which was nominated for an Oscar for 2021.

The story was influenced by the Black Lives Matter protests that took place last year amid the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor at the hands of the police. The writer of the film is Travon Free.

Durant was happy to hear that the short film was nominated to win an Oscar. On twitter he said, “Proud to be an EP on this film, congrats on the Oscar nomination @TwoDistantFilm!”

Be on the lookout on April 25th for the Oscars to see if Durant’s film takes home the Oscar.

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Ex-NFL player Matthew Cherry won an Oscar for animated short film — and predicted it 8 years ago

On Sunday at the Academy Awards, Matthew Cherry became just the second pro athlete to win an Oscar for “Hair Love.” The late Kobe Bryant won one in 2018 with his animated short “Dear Basketball.”

Matthew A. Cherry, a former NFL wide receiver who had exactly zero receptions during his career as he bounced around from team to team, reinvented himself and the reward for that was an actual award, a big shiny gold one on Sunday: An Oscar for the animated short film “Hair Love.”

Cherry wrote and directed the short, about an African-American father attempting to style his young daughter’s hair for the first time.

The film was produced after a 2017 Kickstarter campaign and was also released as a children’s book in May 2019, with illustrations by Vashti Harrison.

Cherry becomes just the second pro athlete to win an Oscar. The late Kobe Bryant won one in 2018 with his animated short “Dear Basketball.”

“’Hair Love’ was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation,” Cherry said after accepting the award with Sony Pictures Animation executive Karen Rupert Toliver. “We wanted to normalize black hair. There’s a very important issue that’s out there, the CROWN Act, and if we can help to get this passed in all 50 states, it will help stories like DeAndre Arnold’s — who is our special guest tonight — stop to happen.”

The reference to Arnold, who attended the Oscars as Cherry’s guest, is this:

The speech was powerful and, naturally, included a shout-out to Kobe.

Cherry called his shot back in 2012. How confident is that?

You can watch the Oscar-winning short film below.

Finally, here are Cherry’s sweet tweets after the ceremony:

 

 

The Genesis Invitational honors Kobe Bryant with eighth-hole tribute

The Genesis Invitational will honor former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant on the eighth hole during the 2020 event.

The tributes to Kobe Bryant keep rolling in.

The Genesis Invitational, beginning Thursday at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, dedicated the eighth hole to the former Los Angeles Laker with a special hole sign and flag in the Lakers’ classic purple and gold.

The hole sign for the par-4, 433-yard eighth also features Bryant’s on-court persona and nickname, “Mamba.”

This is only the latest in several ongoing tributes to Bryant, 41, who died Jan. 26 alongside his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, and seven others in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.

Film director Spike Lee wore a purple and gold suit Sunday to the Academy Awards with Bryant’s other number with the Lakers, 24, sown onto the blazer’s lapels and the upper back. The Academy Awards paid tribute to Bryant, who won an Oscar in 2018 for the year’s Best Animated Short Film “Dear Basketball,” during the In Memoriam tribute.

The Waste Management Phoenix Open honored Bryant one week after his death by using a purple and gold flag on TPC Scottsdale’s famed 16th hole for the event’s final round. The flag featured No. 24 on one side and No. 8 on the other. The hole location was 24 paces onto the green and eight paces from the left, and the hole was cut at 8:24 a.m.

PGA Tour players paid tribute to Bryant during the Waste Management Phoenix Open, too. Tony Finau played his first round in purple and gold golf shoes while Justin Thomas wore Bryant’s No. 33 jersey from Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

Thomas also used four wedges stamped with the phrases, “Mamba mentality,” “Black Mamba,” “Kobe Bean Bryant” and “81 points” during the event. Thomas announced Thursday he plans to auction the wedges and donate funds from the sale to the The MambaOnThree Fund, which was started by the Mamba Sports Foundation after Bryant’s helicopter crash. The fund aids the families of seven other victims of the crash: John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester, Christina Mauser and pilot Ara Zobayan.

[jwplayer U4ymrn2I-9JtFt04J]

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See the 2020 Oscars’ ‘In Memoriam’ that honored Kobe Bryant

Here’s how the Academy Awards paid tribute to Bryant.

Spike Lee’s suit wasn’t the only tribute to Kobe Bryant on Sunday night at the 2020 Oscars.

The Los Angeles Lakers superstar was also the first face that viewers and the crowd of Hollywood’s biggest names saw at the Dolby Theatre when the Academy Awards did its annual “in memoriam” segment.

While Billie Eilish sang a cover of The Beatles’ Yesterday, Bryant holding his Oscar for Dear Basketball was on screen, along with a quote from a 2008 interview: “Life is too short to get bogged down and be discouraged. You have to keep moving. You have to keep going.”

Here’s the moment:

Bryant was also mentioned in a speech when his animated short, Hair Love, won. Former NFL wide receiver Matthew Cherry accepted the award and dedicated it to Bryant: “May we all have a second act as great as his was.”

[jwplayer ucyevoBp-q2aasYxh]

Spike Lee wore a special Kobe Bryant suit to the Oscars

Spike Lee wore a custom suit and a pair of Kobe Nike’s to pay tribute to the former NBA legend.

Spike Lee arrived to the Oscars in Los Angeles with a heavy heart on Sunday as he paid tribute to his friend, Kobe Bryant, by wearing a custom suit that honored the former NBA great.

Bryant and eight other people, including his daughter Gianna, died two weeks ago in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles.

Bryant won an Oscar for the Best Animated Short Film in 2018 for his film “Dear Basketball.”

Lee is a big basketball fan who has long been seen sitting courtside at Knicks games at Madison Square Garden.

His special purple suit on Sunday had the No. 24 on the front and back and he also wore a pair of Nike Kobe 9 Elite “Strategy” shoes. 

Well done, Spike Lee.

[jwplayer gdneVRtU-q2aasYxh]

Former NFL wide receiver gets an Oscar nomination for moving animated short

Matthew A. Cherry went from the NFL to an Oscar nom.

Kobe Bryant went from pro athlete to Oscar winner thanks to his work on Dear Basketball, the animated short film that won in 2018.

Now, he could be joined by Matthew A. Cherry.

Cherry was a wide receiver in the NFL who shuttled between practice squads and active roster for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens after he had a great college career with Akron.

Since he left the league, he became a filmmaker who has directed music videos for some big names and some television shows. He also was an executive producer for Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman. Most recently, he created an animated short, Hair Love, that was a hit both on screen and on the New York Times Bestseller list thanks to a book adaptation.

On Monday, Hair Love was nominated for an Oscar, with the announcement coming from actress Issa Rae, who voiced the film:

You can watch the short right here, and it’s incredible and moving, well worth the seven minutes it takes to watch:

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