Matthew A. Cherry took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the 92nd annual Academy Awards. Cherry won the award for his work Hair Love, and the win was something that has been eight years in the works.
“I’m gonna be nominated for an Oscar one day. Already claiming it,” Cherry wrote back in 2012.
It was just four years later that Cherry returned to Twitter to share an illustration that appeared to be the inspiration of Hair Love to write, “Any 3D artists follow me? I got an Oscar-worthy short film idea to go with this image. Get at me.”
After winning his award, Cherry appeared on Good Morning America to reminisce about his big win.
“It still doesn’t even feel real sitting in my hand right now,” he said. “A lot of people out there literally have a clock that counts down to zero and you gotta get your thoughts out ASAP or they’re gonna play you off. It was just such a surreal experience. I just knew that this was bigger than me and Matthew, that this was a moment about diversity and we really kinda wanted to represent for everyone and just open the doors for everyone to be as diverse as possible in this medium.
“For us, he really represents all of the messages that we were trying to get across in the film. You know, the power of being yourself and he took a stand for himself. You know, the school wanted him to either cut his locks or either not graduate and he chose not to do it and he took a stand. The least we could do was honor him by bringing him out to the biggest night in Hollywood, showing him a good time and showing him that everybody has his back.”
Congratulations to Cherry on his big win.
