Matthew A. Cherry, a former NFL wide receiver who had exactly zero receptions during his career as he bounced around from team to team, reinvented himself and the reward for that was an actual award, a big shiny gold one on Sunday: An Oscar for the animated short film “Hair Love.”
Cherry wrote and directed the short, about an African-American father attempting to style his young daughter’s hair for the first time.
The film was produced after a 2017 Kickstarter campaign and was also released as a children’s book in May 2019, with illustrations by Vashti Harrison.
Cherry becomes just the second pro athlete to win an Oscar. The late Kobe Bryant won one in 2018 with his animated short “Dear Basketball.”
“’Hair Love’ was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation,” Cherry said after accepting the award with Sony Pictures Animation executive Karen Rupert Toliver. “We wanted to normalize black hair. There’s a very important issue that’s out there, the CROWN Act, and if we can help to get this passed in all 50 states, it will help stories like DeAndre Arnold’s — who is our special guest tonight — stop to happen.”
The reference to Arnold, who attended the Oscars as Cherry’s guest, is this:
The speech was powerful and, naturally, included a shout-out to Kobe.
Cherry called his shot back in 2012. How confident is that?
You can watch the Oscar-winning short film below.
Finally, here are Cherry’s sweet tweets after the ceremony:
