Oscars 2020: Animated Short Film Winner Matthew Cherry Called His Academy Awards Win Four Years Ago

At Sunday night’s 92nd Academy Awards, Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love brought home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. The roughly seven-minute film follows an African-American father as he struggles to do his daughter’s natural hair for the first time. It’s a beautiful film with a sweet, powerful message and the idea behind Hair Love is one that Cherry knew from the get-go was an Oscar-worthy one. Four years ago, Cherry shared on Twitter that he had an Oscar-worthy idea and it turned out he wasn’t just excited about what would ultimately become Hair Love. He managed to predict the future.

Back in May 2016, the former NFL wide receiver shared a 3D animation still on Twitter of a father sitting in front of a computer with his daughter on his lap, looking at something on the computer with deep concentration and, perhaps, a bit of apprehension. At the time, Cherry asked if there were any 3D artists who followed him as he had what he called “an Oscar worthy short film idea to go with this image.”

On Sunday night, shortly after winning that Oscar, Cherry shared that original tweet with a simple, but powerful sentiment: Nailed it.

Hair Love‘s win at the Oscars was a big moment for Cherry and the film’s producer Karen Rupert Toliver. In her portion of the acceptance speech, Toliver addressed the importance of representation in animation as well as expressed support for the CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act a piece of legislation currently law in California, New York, and New Jersey that aims to ensure protection against discrimination based on hair texture and protective styles. It’s been introduced in more than 20 states. Cherry himself noted that they had brought with them a special guest, DeAndre Arnold, a Texas high school student who was told that he couldn’t attend graduation unless he cut his dreadlocks.

While Cherry’s full acceptance speech was limited by the time constraints of the ceremony — he later posted the full text on social media which you can read here — the director did take a moment in his speech to honor another previous winner of the Best Animated Short Film Oscar, the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant, who won for Dear Basketball at the 90th Academy Awards in 2018.

“This award is dedicated to Kobe Bryant,” Cherry said. “May we all have a second act as great as his was. Thank you.”

What do you think about Hair Love‘s Oscar win? Let us know in the comments below.