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Fans Are Accusing The Oscars Of Exploiting Chadwick Boseman’s Death

This year's Academy Awards ceremony was already going to be one of the strangest ever before a single winner was announced thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, but the show itself has been coming in for severe criticism after it appeared as though the entire telecast had been built around Chadwick Boseman being named Best Actor, only for Anthony Hopkins to win instead.

Chadwick Boseman

This year’s Academy Awards ceremony was already going to be one of the strangest ever before a single winner was announced thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, but the show itself has been coming in for severe criticism after it appeared as though the entire telecast had been built around Chadwick Boseman being named Best Actor, only for Anthony Hopkins to win instead.

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Best Picture is usually the last trophy of the night, but the Oscars decided to change it up this year and have the Best Actress and Best Actor victors named last. Naturally, this led many folks to believe that Boseman’s coronation was inevitable, something that the producers no doubt fully expected to happen as well, only for Hopkins’ devastating turn in The Father to win out over the late Black Panther star’s performance as Levee in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

What made it worse was that Hopkins wasn’t even there in person or virtually, and had to deliver his acceptance speech the following day, where he paid tribute to Boseman. The Oscars ended on a controversial whimper rather than the triumphant bang everybody had been hoping for, then, and now the Academy is facing accusations of exploiting the actor’s death for publicity and views, as you can see below.

https://twitter.com/genevievecheng/status/1386522965966147586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1386522965966147586%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fepicstream.com%2Fnews%2FBriConstantino%2FFans-Accuse-Oscars-of-Exploiting-Chadwick-Bosemans-Death-Following-Best-Actor-Snub

https://twitter.com/microwvblgrapes/status/1386760190406447104

https://twitter.com/asgardianwreck/status/1386525062824562689

https://twitter.com/fllenangeIs/status/1386520679411978240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1386520679411978240%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fepicstream.com%2Fnews%2FBriConstantino%2FFans-Accuse-Oscars-of-Exploiting-Chadwick-Bosemans-Death-Following-Best-Actor-Snub

https://twitter.com/hettiehmcintyre/status/1386740442109202435

Of course, Oscar winners are determined by ballots, which are collated and counted by an independent company, with the envelopes then being locked away until they get opened and read aloud on stage. Still, it’s certainly an unfortunate turn of events that the Academy was so sure Chadwick Boseman would win that they hinged the entire broadcast on it, only for it to backfire spectacularly when presenter Joaquin Phoenix named Hopkins as the winner, in what has to rank as one of the biggest upsets of the 21st Century.