Boots Riley Explains ‘Sorry to Bother You’ Oscars Shut Out, and Why He’s Not Mad at the Academy
Zack Sharf
While major contenders such as “Roma” and “The Favourite” dominated the 2019 Oscar nominations as expected, one movie that failed to make the cut in any category is Boots Riley’s beloved “Sorry to Bother You.” The Sundance hit made the shortlist for Best Original Song and had its advocates for Best Original Screenplay. While the film was never seen as a contender in major categories, it has been in the awards season conversation nonetheless, with nominations from the Gotham Awards, the Indie Spirit Awards, and the DGA Awards, where Riley is nominated for first-time feature.
Shortly after it was revealed “Sorry to Bother You” was completely shut out at the Oscars, Riley took to social media to express no hard feelings against the Academy. Riley noticed some “Sorry to Bother You” fans attributing the film’s lack of Oscar nominations to a larger issue within the Academy, mainly how it continues to be hard for smaller inclusive independent films to break into the race, but the writer-director said that wasn’t the case here. In fact, Riley estimates “Sorry to Bother You” didn’t land any Oscar nominations because there just wasn’t a campaign in the first place.
“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,” Riley wrote. “We didn’t buy For Your Consideration ads in the trade magazines and we didn’t service the whole academy with screeners. Without that, its perceived that you don’t have a chance, or enough buzz.”
While there were some campaign events held for “Sorry to Bother You,” it was hardly the push needed to really fight for actual nominations for Best Original Song and Best Original Screenplay. Fortunately, Riley views Oscar season as a win for “Sorry to Bother You” even without Oscar nominations.
“I just enjoy the parties, free drinks, and hanging out with really talented filmmakers that inspire me, many of them who got nominated,” Riley wrote. ‘The campaign that we did do – press runs, red carpet stuff – got a lot more people to see the movie. That’s, for me, the big attraction to any film award.”
“Sorry to Bother You” is now available to stream on Hulu. Read Riley’s thoughts in the thread below.
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
