Aretha Franklin’s family is sounding off after Jennifer Hudson didn’t get an Oscar nomination for portraying the Queen of Soul and say that she’d be upset.
Despite her acclaimed performance and Best Actress SAG Award nomination, the Academy Award-winning actress didn’t receive a nomination in the Best Actress Oscar category for her portrayal of Franklin in Liesl Tommy’s biopic Respect.
No Black actresses were nominated for Best Actress.
Hudson’s snub, along with the snub Tessa Thompson for her role Rebecca Hall’s Passing, continues the sad trend of Black actresses being overlooked by The Academy in this category, despite giving some of the year’s finest performances. Now, Franklin’s family has sounded off to TMZ on Hudson’s non-nomination.
Sabrina Owens, Franklin’s niece, reportedly told TMZ that she felt Hudson did a fantastic job portraying The Queen Of Soul and that her Oscar snub comes as a disappointment. Hudson was on many pundits shortlist for a Best Actress Oscar nod. More recently, many expected to be nominated given her recent nod at the SAG Awards, which is a huge prognosticator who gets an Oscar nomination. According to TMZ, Owens feels that Aretha would agree that Hudson deserved an Oscar nod.
Aretha’s first cousin and former backup singer Brenda Franklin Corbit reportedly told TMZ that the Academy made a “huge mistake” leaving Hudson out as an Oscar nominee this year and that Aretha would have been upset.
In the event that Hudson would have been nominated, it would have marked her second Oscar nomination. The Grammy-winning songstress and Emmy Award winner took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2007 for her role as Effie White in the musical film Dreamgirls.