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Ryan Coogler won't join The Academy despite his first Oscar nomination

New DelhiUpdated: Apr 02, 2021, 09:13 PM IST
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Photograph:(WION Web Team)

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Shaka King's biopic on the late Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton scored 10 total Oscar nominations including one for Daniel Kaluuya as best supporting actor.

'Judas and the Black Messiah' producer Ryan Coogler declined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' invitation to become a member in 2016, and he still has no interest.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Coogler said, "I don't buy into this versus that, or "This movie wasn't good enough to make this list,"' 

'I love movies...For me, that's good enough. If I'm going to be a part of organizations, they're going to be labor unions, where we're figuring out how to take care of each other's families and health insurance. But I know that these things bring exposure.'  

Ryan, Charles D. King, and Shaka King made history on March 15 when they became the first all-black producing team to be nominated for best picture.

Shaka King's biopic on the late Chicago Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton scored 10 total Oscar nominations including one for Daniel Kaluuya as best supporting actor.

'Judas and the Black Messiah' also features Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Lil Rel Howery, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne, and Martin Sheen.  

Coogler begins his six-month Black Panther II shoot in Atlanta this July alongside Lupita Nyong'o, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, and Angela Bassett - according to THR.

The Oakland native said it's 'difficult' to make the 2022 sequel without Chadwick Boseman who died, age 43, on August 28 after a secret four-year battle with stage III colon cancer.

'You've got to keep going when you lose loved ones. I know Chad wouldn't have wanted us to stop. He was somebody who was so about the collective,' Ryan said.

'Black Panther, that was his movie. He was hired to play that role before anybody else was even thought of, before I was hired, before any of the actresses were hired. On that set, he was all about everybody else. Even though he was going through what he was going through, he was checking in on them, making sure they were good.

Boseman is now the frontrunner for the best actor for his intense performance as ambitious trumpet player Levee Green in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

The 93rd Academy Awards will air on April 25.