It seems President Barack Obama is siding with the movie critics, not the Academy, when it comes to the movie “Selma.”
Obama will host cast and crew members of the Martin Luther King biopic for a screening at the White House on Friday evening, one day after the critically acclaimed movie was snubbed as Oscar nominations were handed out.
The movie’s lead actor David Oyelowo, director Ava DuVernay, rapper and actor Common, Oprah Winfrey and several others will join Obama for the screening on Friday. Rep. John Lewis, who is portrayed in the movie, will also head to the White House for the screening.
The movie still cinched two nominations, for best picture and best original song, but DuVernay and Oyelowo’s portrayal of Martin Luther King didn’t get an Oscar nod. A White House official said the event was pre-planned and not scheduled based on the Oscar nominations, or lack thereof.
Watching ‘Selma’ with 103-year-old matriarch of the movement
That disappointment came after former aides to President Lyndon Johnson slammed the movie’s portrayal of the former President as inaccurate and unfair. Those aides said the movie painted Johnson as a reluctant proponent to further civil rights legislation and unfairly characterized his relationship with the ’60s civil rights leader as overly acrimonious.
Andrew Young: The miracle of Selma
Obama, who famously installed a bust of King in the Oval Office, hasn’t weighed in on the movie’s historical accuracy. But maybe a screening alongside the cast and crew will prompt him to speak up on the subject.
Opinion: Oscar is much smaller than ‘Selma’
The list provided by the White House:
- Common
- Oprah Winfrey
- David Oyelowo
- Tim Roth
- Ava DuVernay
- Carmen Ejogo
- Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat
CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.
