Selma is a powerful film that details the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his protests that were instrumental to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It is told with intensity, emotion, and sincerity – and all three of those elements are deeply present in the performance by David Oyelowo as the movie's subject. Thanks to director Ava DuVernay, you can now watch just how into his performance Oyelowo was, as she's shared the footage of his last day on the set.
Through her official Twitter feed, DuVernay shared the above video as an obvious tribute to the performance that she fostered out of Oyelowo's chops on the Selma set. Along with the video, she tweeted a very special message to her film's leading man:
I never shared this. I saved it for today. A special outtake of my hero. I love you, David. You are my Best Actor.
While this certainly isn't the first Tweet to comment on what some would consider a gigantic Oscar snub, Ava DuVernay's message is probably the most effective, and the most tasteful, that is out on the market at the moment. She could have very easily said something about the fact that she too was absent from the list of nominees, but she focused on the easily Oscar worthy performance of David Oyelowo as the focus of moment. It's a move that draws attention to a supposed wrong, while at the same time honoring the art. After all, it's the reason we're all watching the awards tonight, isn't it?
It's true that Selma wasn't completely shut out from tonight's Oscar ceremony, and there's a huge amount of supporters who feel that the film should have been given more for its efforts in telling such a pivotal story of American history. With DuVernay's steady hand with the emotional and thematic content, and with Oyelowo's masterful performance of the more human side of Dr. King, Selma elevated itself past mere biopic status and turned itself into something that truly can last the test of time.
Not only is Selma something that'll last throughout history, it 's a film that manages to be entertaining and informative without being manipulative. Major awards attention would have been a great reward for the work that Ava DuVernay did with David Oyelowo and the rest of the cast and crew, but as Ethan Hawke said while on the Red Carpet, there's going to be tons of films that we'll still be talking about tonight, regardless of their Oscar status.
