If “Crash” was always going to win best picture, the Academy could’ve at least nominated Thandiwe Newton.
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“Crash,” released in 2004, is one of the most infamous (and perhaps undeserving) best picture winners of all time. The Independent called it an “utterly tone-deaf, cloyingly sentimental ensemble film,” as it only engages with racism in the most surface-level way.
So, why should Newton, 50, have been nominated? Because she plays a young Black woman who is sexually assaulted by a white racist cop played by Matt Dillon — only Dillon was nominated for an Academy Award, even though most of the emotional burden of the film rests on Newton’s shoulders.
She received many other precursor awards for the film, including a BAFTA, an Empire Award, and multiple other nominations.
But, if you want to forget “Crash” exists altogether, Newton could’ve also been nominated for “Beloved,” “The Pursuit of Happyness,” or even this year’s “God’s Country.”
