Black Sheep, a film directed by Ed Perkins and produced by Simon and Jonathan Chinn, has been shortlisted in the documentary short subject category for the Oscars.
The film follows the story of Cornelius Walker after the murder of 11-year-old Damilola Taylor in November 2000. Cornelius, also aged 11 and with Nigerian parents, lived nearby. His mother, fearing for Cornelius’s safety, moved the family out of London and he suddenly found himself living on a white estate among many racists.
When are the Oscars?
The 91st Academy awards take place on 24 February at the Dolby theatre in Los Angeles. It is broadcast live on ABC in the US, on Sky in the UK, and on Channel Nine in Australia. The red carpet portion of the show is broadcast live by the E! network.
Who decides on the Oscars?
The Oscars are voted for by members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (aka Ampas), which currently numbers just under 8,000 voting members, divided into 17 separate branches, including actors, directors, costume designers, etc. (To join, names have to be proposed and approved by individual branches.) The Academy has received considerable criticism in recent years for the perceived white/male/elderly bias of its voters – and a drive to create a more diverse membership was instituted after the #OscarsSoWhite campaign in 2016.
How many Oscars are there and how does a film get nominated?
There are 24 categories – ranging from best picture to best sound mixing – presented on Oscar night. The Academy also gives out a bunch of Scientific and Technical awards: this year, for example, it will honour the people behind Adobe Photoshop and the Medusa Performance Capture System. Also there are the honorary Oscars: this year they are going to actor Cicely Tyson, producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, Steven Spielberg's PR flack Marvin Levy and composer Lalo Schifrin (of Mission: Impossible renown).
Each of the main awards has its own rules and regulations for slimming down all the eligible entries – first to a longlist, then a shortlist, then the final nomination list. In most categories, to be eligible a film must have been released for seven days in Los Angeles before 31 December, and a specialist committee makes the selection for the nomination – which is then voted on by the full membership. For the best foreign language film award, each country can submit one film (89 were put forward this year), before a committee boils them down to a final five.
What do Oscar winners win?
The Oscar statuette isn't solid gold: it's gold-plated bronze on a black metal base. It is 34 cm tall and weighs 3.8 kg. While the Academy doesn't own it once it is handed over, its acceptance is conditional that recipients won't sell them unless they have offered them back to the Academy for $1.
Challenging and timely, the 27-minute film explores questions about ethnicity and identity and the compromises people make to fit in. It won the best short documentary award at the Sheffield Doc/Fest in June.
Nominations for the 91st Academy Awards will be announced on 22 January.
