Boots Riley attends the UK Premiere of Sorry To Bother You at the 62nd BFI London Film Festival on October 11, 2018 in London, England.
Jeff Spicer/Getty
When the nominations for this year's Academy Awards were announced on Tuesday many people were surprised to see Boots Riley's Sorry To Bother You snubbed in every category. The film, an anarchic and surreal satire featuring Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson, was a critical smash in 2018. However, in a series of tweets posted after the Oscar nominations were made, director Riley stated that he opted out of running a full campaign aimed at getting the film nominated.
“There are tons of ppl making statements this morning about what Sorry to Bother You not getting nominated says about the Academy and the film industry that I think are misconceptions that may affect what kinds of movies filmmakers think are possible to get made,” Riley wrote on Twitter.
Riley continued to explain the nature of the industry’s voting process. “The largest factor as to why we didn’t get nominated is that we didn’t actually run a campaign that aimed to get a nomination for Screenplay or Song. We didn’t buy For Your Consideration ads in the trade magazines and we didn’t service the whole academy with screeners.” He said he knew doing this would mean no recognition from the Academy. “Not doing that made it a self-fulfilling prophecy that we wouldn’t get nominated. So I had no actual belief that we would get nominated.”
There are tons of ppl making statements this morning about what Sorry To Bother You not getting nominated says about the Academy and the film industry that I think are misconceptions that may affect what kinds of movies filmmakers think are possible to get made. So I want to
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) January 22, 2019
make a few things clear. I think that most of the film industry want to see something new and that there is a large percentage of the film industry that actually agrees with what I'm saying in STBY. Separate from that-
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) January 22, 2019
from my conversations and other people reporting their knowledge to me, there are a lot of people in the Academy who liked STBY a lot. Obviously, with any movie that takes chances there are also folks who hated it. That's to be expected.
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) January 22, 2019
But the largest factor as to why we didn't get nominated is that we didn't actually run a campaign that aimed to get a nomination for Screenplay or Song. We didn't buy For Your Consideration ads in the trade magazines and we didn't service the whole academy with screeners.
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) January 22, 2019
Without that, its perceived that you don't have a chance, or enough buzz. Academy members dont just vote for a thing they like if they think it doesn't have a chance. It's like that with most voting. That is not to say that we would have gotten a nomination if we had done that-
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) January 22, 2019
because at that point it becomes about which of the contenders they like the most- it's just that not doing that made it a self-fulfilling prophecy that we wouldn't get nominated. So I had no actual belief that we would get nominated.
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) January 22, 2019
I just enjoy the parties, free drinks, & hanging out with really talented filmmakers that inspire me- many of them who got nominated. &the campaign that we did do- press runs, red carpet stuff- got a lot more ppl2see the movie. That's, 4 me, the big attraction to any film award.
— Boots Riley (@BootsRiley) January 22, 2019
Roma and The Favourite both picked up 10 nominations each ahead of this year's ceremony. A Star Is Born also earned multiple nominations, while Black Panther became the first superhero movie ever to be nominated for Best Picture. Spike Lee earned his first ever Best Director nomination for BlackKklansman, a movie Boots Riley previously criticized for its fictionalized narrative.