The next Academy Awards are set to take place on 24 February 2019.
- Sep 1, 2018
AceShowbiz - Chadwick Boseman wants Black Panther to be considered for the Best Picture category at the Academy Awards.
The actor starred as lead character T'Challa / Black Panther in the Marvel Studios superhero film released in February, with the Ryan Coogler-directed flick widely praised by critics and grossing $1.347 billion at the worldwide box office, making it the second-highest grossing movie of the year.
Regarding the upcoming awards season, Chadwick has now shared that he would like Black Panther to be in the running for the Best Picture prize at the Oscars rather than the Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film category, a new honour being set up by officials at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
"We don't know what it (the new prize) is, so I don't know whether to be happy about it or not," he told The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast. "What I can say is that there's no campaign (that we are mounting) for Popular Film; like, if there's a campaign, it's for Best Picture, and that's all there is to it."
Eligibility requirements and other key details about the Popular Film category have not yet been announced, though the movie must have made over $300 million (£230 million) domestically.
And while Black Panther has been extremely popular around the globe, Chadwick is hopeful that members of the Academy won't be deterred from nominating it in more than one category.
"A good movie is a good movie... and clearly it doesn't matter how much money a movie makes in order for it to be 'a good movie' (in the minds of Academy members) because if (it did), the movies that get nominated and win (which have tended in recent years to not be blockbusters) wouldn't get nominated; and if it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter on both sides," the 40-year-old commented. "For my money, the only thing that matters is the level of difficulty."
The next Academy Awards are set to take place on 24 February 2019.
