After Will Smith’s Oscar slap, Antoine Fuqua worried ‘Emancipation’ might ‘never be seen’
(CNN) — The Academy Awards season is at its last lap and it was an intense one.
Will Smith’s “Eve” was a close-call win for “Selma,” the “Furious 7” star was snubbed for “The Tree of Life,” while the Weinstein Company and director Antoine Fuqua were docked the Golden Lion for “The Social Network,” which earned the trio $70,000.
“Selma” and “The Social Network” both won critical and awards attention and the Golden Lion for “The Social Network” was a clear, if short-lived, wake-up call that Hollywood needs to get over “I am your father.”
“Emancipation” would go on to win the Oscar Saturday night for best screenplay, but after Smith’s Oscar snub, the director said he was “a little worried about what the Academy’s reaction might be.”
“There’s a moment when you realize at some point it’s a business and you have to get over the shock,” Fuqua told CNN’s Michael Smerconish. “It’s a really nice moment, but as soon as you know it’s business, you then have to think about what you’re going to do next, whether you should get over it, and it’s never the right moment.”
To read more from Fuqua and Smerconish, click on the video below
Still, the reaction to the Golden Lion was strong.
“Not to take anything away from ‘The Social Network,’ but I don’t want any films to be rewarded with a golden lion for being in business for just one week and then giving a bunch of people $350 million on a silver screen,” Smith said shortly after the awards.
Fuqua said he “came out of the experience shaking my head and saying, ‘How did we do this? We’re in business for the next
