An Oscar-Winning Ode to Black Hair and Black Fatherhood

THE MULTITALENTED Matthew A. Cherry ’99—–a former NFL wide receiver turned filmmaker—–brought some much-needed diversity to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ pantheon of award-winning films in February 2020 with his Oscar win for Best Animated Short Film.

Cherry and his producer shared the spotlight as they accepted the award for Hair Love—–a seven-minute animated film about a black father who learns how to style his young daughter’s hair while his wife is in the hospital.

“I just want to say that Hair Love was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation—–we wanted to normalize black hair,” Cherry noted in his acceptance speech.

The Twitterverse lit up after the awards ceremony with retweets of Cherry’s prescient tweet from 2012: “I’m gonna be nominated for an Oscar one day. Already claiming it.”

View Cherry’s Oscar-winning film—–which he cowrote, directed and coproduced—–at matthewcherry.com/hair-love. In 2019, Hair Love was adapted into a best-selling children’s book written by Cherry and illustrated by Vashti Harrison.

Matthew A. Cherry ‘99 (above left) and his producer, Karen Rupert Toliver, celebrated their Oscar win for Hair Love at the 92nd Annual Academy Awards in February 2020