Although there has been a swarm of upset due to the lack of diversity in the recent 2020 Academy Award nominations, one thing that had us all smiling was the nomination for Best Short Film. If you haven’t seen Hair Love yet—which I’m going to assume means you were under a rock somewhere with no broadcasting or social devices— it follows the story of a father struggling to do his daughter’s natural hair in the absence of her sick mother. This adorable short story has pretty much taken over Instagram, You-Tube and most other media sites since August. This weekend our smiles became cheek splitting grins when it won the Academy award for Best Short Film (Animated).
Written and directed by former NFL footballer-turned-writer, Matthew A. Cherry and co-produced by Karen Rupert Toliver, exhibited that a six and a half minute online animation about self love could win such a prestigious award.
Hair Love follows Zuri, a little girl who can’t quite follow her mother’s online tutorial and seeks help from her father. Unfortunately for Zuri he seems to be more clueless than she. Although there is near to no dialogue featured in the piece, it’s charm is heart-warmingly relatable because the importance of family is the core of its narrative. The success of the animation is not only moving, due to the adorableness of the doe-eyed Zuri or the relate ability, because let’s face it all of us have been there. This story is touching because of its social and political impact which has struck a chord within the Black and natural hair communities.
During their acceptance speech Toliver stressed the importance of representation in visual media saying, “especially in cartoons because in cartoons that’s when we first see our movies”. Cherry used his speech to draw attention to the CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace) Act and urged for it to be passed in the remaining 48 states of America, as it is only in effect in California and New York as it stands. Cherry took the opportunity for social awareness one step further by inviting DeAndre Arnold, who was denied the chance to walk at his graduation due to the length of his dreadlocks.
Hair Love has star studded list of contributors including Issa Rae as the online vlogger, Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade as executive producers, Gabourey Sidibe, Yara Shahidi and Jordan Peele. Hair love was originally crowd funded when Cherry launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2017. Three years later and the project has garnered prestigious acknowledgement from Hollywood and Cherry is striding across the stage to receive his well deserved Oscar. This proves Hair love really is the people’s champion in the sea of nominations this year. Just when you thought the story couldn’t get any more inspirational, a tweet from Cherry in 2012 has recently resurfaced declaring he would get an Oscar one day, proving if you speak things into existence they really do come true.
