Colman Domingo Becomes First Back-to-Back Best Actor Oscar Nominee Since Denzel Washington
Colman Domingo, a best actor nominee last year for Rustin and this year for Sing Sing, is the first person to earn best actor Oscar nominations in back-to-back years since Denzel Washington did so for Fences in 2017 and Roman J. Israel, Esq. in 2018.
The Sing Sing actor garnered his second Oscar nomination on Thursday after making history last year as the first Afro-Latino to be nominated in the best actor category. Among the nominees for best actor at the 97th Academy Awards (which include Domingo, Adrien Brody, Timothée Chalamet, Ralph Fiennes and Sebastian Stan), Domingo is the only actor to be nominated in the coveted category in back-to-back years.
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Washington was previously nominated for best actor simultaneously in 2017 and 2018, a feat also accomplished before him by Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe and Johnny Depp, among others. Of Domingo’s fellow nominees this year, Brody previously won the title at the 2003 Academy Awards while Stan is a first-time nominee.
Sing Sing received three Oscar nominations, including Domingo’s nod for best actor, adapted screenplay and original song with the movie’s track “Like a Bird.” The A24 film follows a group of incarcerated men enrolled in a theater program, inspired by the Sing Sing Correctional Facility’s real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program.
Domingo portrays John “Divine G” Whitfield, a man who was wrongfully convicted. The film centers around the friendship of Whitfield and Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin, who portrays himself alongside many other RTA alumni. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Domingo said they wanted to “take a sledgehammer to any trope” of previous film/TV portrayals of incarnation with Sing Sing.
“We want to show that there are people in there, taking accountability and responsibility and wanting to do the work of healing to better themselves,” he added. “I think that we’re showing radical love between Black and Brown men which is not typical. That was something very important to me. This is a part of our healing and our liberation for ourselves and our mental health — to feel soft, to feel vulnerable and to smash tropes of toxic masculinity that we’re raised with.”
Sing Sing returned to theaters on Jan. 17, becoming the first movie to be simultaneously available to nearly a million incarcerated people in the U.S. The film screened in correctional facilities in California, New York, Texas and 43 other states due to A24’s collaboration with RTA and the nonprofit organization Edovo.
“With Sing Sing, we’re giving incarcerated individuals an opportunity to see themselves in a story of resilience and transformation, and to feel inspired to imagine new possibilities for their own lives,” said Edovo founder and CEO Brian Hill.
As for Washington, he wasn’t nominated this year even though he was considered a potential nominee for best supporting actor for his role in Gladiator II.
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