Former NFL Player Matthew Cherry Wins Oscar For Animated Short 'Hair Love'
Cherry wrote and directed the film, which is about a father doing his daughter's hair for the first time.
Hair Love, the animated short directed and written by former NFL wide receiver Matthew Cherry, received an award at the 2020 Oscars.
Hair Love won the award for best animated short film on Sunday. The film, which tells the story of a father doing his daughter's hair for the first time, was produced following a 2017 Kickstarter campaign. The short starred Issa Rae.
Following the Oscar win, Cherry took to Twitter to share the "full speech" he didn't get the opportunity to do.
"Hair Love born out of wanting to see more representation in animation but also wantiong to normalize black hair," Cherry wrote. "We have a real channce here to help make hair discrimination illegal through The Crown Act and get it passed as law in all 50 states for the people like our special guest DeAndre Arnold and many more."
DeAndre Arnold was the Texas teen who was barred from walking for graduation because he refused to cut his dreadlocks.
"My hair has nothing to with my excellence as we say at Barbers Hill [High School], how smart I am, what job I’m going to get," Arnold ad previously said when speaking on the incident. "My hair doesn’t determine that, I determine that from my character."
Cherry also dedicated the Oscar award to Kobe Bryant.
After his win, fans of Hair Love started to recirculate tweets from almosts 10 years ago where he predicted he would one day be nominated for an Oscar.
Cherry also resurfaced his initial callout for animators.
From Twitter to the Oscars.