The cast and crew of the Oscar-nominated film Selma descended on the Alabama city of the same name on Sunday, in honour of Martin Luther King Day.
Local residents joined producer and actress Oprah Winfrey, British actor David Oyelowo, director Ava DuVernay, and actor/rapper Common as they walked across the bridge where King began his 1965, 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery, in support of black voting rights. As dramatised in the critically acclaimed film, State Troopers attacked the marchers on Edmund Pettus Bridge with clubs and tear gas – leading to the day, March 7, to become known as Bloody Sunday.
On Friday, President Obama also hosted the cast at a special White House screening of Selma.
Selma has been at the centre of a row over the lack of diversity in Hollywood, after receiving just two nominations in the 2015 Oscars. Oyelowo, who has received rave reviews for his portrayal of King, was previously thought to be a favourite in the Best Actor category, while DuVernay was widely tipped to become the first black female director to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar; cinematographer Bradley Young was also a favourite in the Best Cinematography category. In the event, Selma was given nominations for Best Picture and Best Song (Glory, by Common).
The Academy has been criticised for failing to nominate a single black actor, director or cinematographer for this year's awards. Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first black woman to lead the organisation, has said she'd "love to see and look forward to see a greater cultural diversity among all our nominees in all of our categories", while others were less diplomatic.
Star Wars director George Lucas, who has long refused to join the film industry body, recently called Selma a "beautiful" film, and criticised the Academy for not recognising it: "The thing about the Academy, it's a political campaign," Lucas said. "It has nothing to do with artistic endeavour at all."
Director Spike Lee, meanwhile, has toldThe Daily Beast that Selma's "snub" doesn't diminish the director's achievement: "If I saw Ava today I’d say, '‘You know what? F___ 'em. You made a very good film, so feel good about that and start working on the next one.'"
The Academy, for its part, didn't exactly help matters by misidentifying two Selma actresses on its Instagram page over the weekend. A photograph of Tessa Thompson, who plays SNCC co-founder Diane Nash, was labelled as Carmen Ejogo, who plays Coretta Scott King; the image was quickly deleted, but has been preserved on Twitter.
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