The Oscar nominations have been announced, and out of 24 categories, two African-Americans appearing in the same film have received nominations.
The actresses are the amazing Viola Davis, who plays a maid named Aibileen in Mississippi in the early 1960s, and Octavia Spencer, who plays a maid named Minny. The movie, “The Help,” is nominated for Best Picture, along with Davis for Best Actress and Spencer for Best Supporting Actress.
The DreamWorks picture, based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett, tells the story of the segregated ways of the South, which included having the maids who took care of white children use a bathroom outside of the homes they worked in. Skeeter, a young white woman played by Emma Stone, is an aspiring writer who decides to interview the maids about their terrible working conditions and puts it all into a book.
Now, I can appreciate that Davis and Spencer were nominated, but were there really no other performances that deserved Oscar nods? All we can hope is that they at least reward these two ladies for the work they’ve accomplished on the big screen.