'Hair Love' Creator Knew 8 Years Ago That His Short Film Would Be Worth An Oscar

The Academy Awards just rolled by, honoring the best movies and the people who create them. Oftentimes it can be quite apparent who is going to receive the golden Oscar statues, however, at times, completely unexpected things happen and surprise winners emerge, snatching the award, like this year's most awarded movie and crew did. “Parasite” made history during the 2020 Oscars when it became the first movie not in English to win Best Film.

This story is not about unexpected twists, however. It's about putting your word out there and then working hard to turn it into reality. Matthew A. Cherry did just that when, back in 2012, he posted a tweet saying: "I'm gonna be nominated for an Oscar one day."

Then, in 2016, the man came up with an idea for an "Oscar-worthy" short film and sought out people to help him turn that idea into an actual visual story. A Kickstarter campaign to fund the movie was launched a year later by Cherry and raised over $300,000,  way over its initial goal of $75,000. "Hair Love" came out last year and was nominated for Oscars. The film was written and directed by Cherry in collaboration with Karen Rupert Toliver.

"Hair Love" tells the story of a man who must do his daughter's hair for the first time. The protagonist's 7-year-old daughter is shown struggling to style her thick, unruly hair, all while watching a video tutorial narrated by her mother. Her father then tries to help her out, and, after putting in much effort and care, succeeds. The duo then arrives at a hospital, where the mother is wearing a scarf and sitting in a wheelchair. At the end of the short film, the mother removes the scarf to reveal her bald head. The family embraces each other.

The short film was competing against 4 others in the Animated Short Film category: Dcera (Daughter) by Daria Kashcheeva, Kitbull by Kathryn Hendrickson & Rosana Sullivan, Memorable by Bruno Collet & Jean-François Le Corre, and Sister by Siqi Song. As the film received the prestigious Oscar award, Cherry looked back at his original tweets and triumphantly exclaimed: "Nailed it!"