Oscar Awards: African-American Filmmaker, Jordan Peele, Bags Three Nominations

The Oscars announced on Tuesday night that African-American filmmaker, Jordan Peele, has bagged three Academy Award nominations.

He is the first African-American to achieve this feat.

Peele got nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture for his work in the critically acclaimed movie Get Out.

Jordan Peele. Photo credit: Scream Magazine

The 38-year-old actor, writer, and director is also the third person to get three Academy Award nominations for writing, directing and producing in a debut film.

He is also the fifth filmmaker to ever receive best producer and best director nominations in a single Academy Award.

Previously nominated filmmakers include John Singleton for 1991’s Boyz N The Hood, Lee Daniels for 2009’s Precious, Steve McQueen for 2013’s 12 Years a Slave and Barry Jenkins for last year’s best-picture winner, Moonlight.

Get Out is the producer and comedian’s first film as a solo director since his entrance into Hollywood in 2002. It has been described as an audience favourite due to its attention on racism and exploitation of blacks.

The film stars Daniel Kaluuya as the lead actor who also earned Oscar nomination for Best Actor.

Peele thanked his fans shortly after the announcements on his Twitter handle @JordanPeele, “Right now I’m just thinking about everyone who bought a ticket and told someone else to. You did this. Thank you.”

Get Out grossed 175.7 million dollars in the U.S. and Canada and 79 million dollars in other territories for a worldwide gross of 254.7 million dollars, against a production budget of 4.5 million dollars.

Early last year, Peele signed a 2-year deal with “Universal Studios” for rights to his next film.

**AFP