‘American Fiction’ Writer-Director Cord Jefferson On Oscar Noms And Pushing Boundaries Beyond Black Cinema: “Hopefully It Cracks The Door Open For More Filmmakers Behind Us”
deadline.comOn Tuesday, writer-director Cord Jefferson received his first Oscar nomination for American Fiction in Writing (Adapted Screenplay).
Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett, American Fiction straddles the line between drama and satire to depict social commentary on microaggression and pigeonholing of Black creatives in the publishing and film industry.
To tell this story, the film centers on Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), an intelligent and jaded author frustrated by the high-profit margins on Black entertainment that relies on discriminatory behaviors and tropes.
But, in wanting to challenge the construct and prove his point about the bias for Black narratives that are more palatable for white consumers, he uses an alias to create a widely stereotypical book that accidentally gains him critical acclaim and notoriety. “This is the kind of movie that a lot of people told me wouldn’t work,” Jefferson told Deadline. “A lot of distributors passed on this film.
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