Nigerian-American film director, Chinonye Chukwu slams Oscars for ‘unabashed misogyny towards Black women’ as her movie ‘Till’ gets snubbed for this year’s nominations

Nigerian-American film director, Chinonye Chukwu has called out the Oscars after her movie was snubbed from this year’s Oscar nominations. 

The 37-year-old filmmaker directed and co-wrote Till, a true story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who was brutally lynched in 1955 while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.

While the film has earned rave reviews with a 98% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film failed to earn any Oscar nominations when they were announced on Tuesday January 24.

Chukwu shared a snap of her posing with Civil Rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams at the October 2022 premiere of Till, with a heartfelt caption.

‘We live in a world and work in industries that are so aggressively committed to upholding whiteness and perpetuating an unabashed misogyny towards Black women,’ Chukwu began.

‘And yet. I am forever in gratitude for the greatest lesson of my life – regardless of any challenges or obstacles, I will always have the power to cultivate my own joy, and it is this joy that will continue to be one of my greatest forms of resistance,’ she added.

The film – with an estimated budget of $20 million, which debuted in October – has only taken in $9.7 million worldwide, with the domestic haul of $9 million representing most of its global take.

Till’s 98% is also a higher Rotten Tomatoes rating than all 10 of the Best Picture nominees – All Quiet on the Western Front (92%), Avatar: The Way of Water (77%), The Banshees of Inisherin (97%), Elvis (77%), Everything Everywhere All At Once (95%), The Fablemans (92%), Tar (90%), Top Gun: Maverick (96%), Triangle of Sadness (72%) and Women Talking (90%).

The film is based on the true story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago native who was visiting family in Money, Mississippi in the summer of 1955. The film was also co-written and produced by Keith Beauchamp, who made the 2003 documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till.