This year’s Oscar awards promise a record night for African-American actors, who have earned five of the 20 nominations.
Jamie Foxx holds court as the first African-American performer to receive two nominations in the same year, as lead actor for his portrayal of Ray Charles in Ray and supporting actor for Collateral. Foxx’s competition includes Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) for best actor and Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) for supporting actor. This will be Freeman’s fourth nomination.
Actress Sophie Okonedo has also earned a supporting actress nomination for Hotel Rwanda, in which she plays Cheadle’s wife.
Other nominees include Tupac: Resurrection in the feature-length documentary category, Mighty Times: The Children’s March in the documentary short-subject category and Yesterday, in the foreign-language category, which has the distinction of being the first South African film nominated for an Oscar.
The wave of nominations comes three years after another historic Oscar celebration for African-Americans, when Halle Berry won the best actress award for Monster’s Ball and Denzel Washington took the best actor honor for Training Day. It was the first time African-Americans won both lead acting prizes, and with Ali star Will Smith also nominated, the first time in 29 years that African-Americans earned three nominations in the lead categories.
Comedian Chris Rock, who has joked that the Academy Awards looked like the “million white man march” for its traditional under-representation of African-Americans, will host the February 27 event.