When the nominations for this year's Academy Awards were announced earlier in the week, history was made. Yance Ford, the director of Netflix-produced documentary Strong Island, became the first openly transgender director to ever be nominated for an Oscar.
Ford's doco is about his brother William, who was murdered at the age of 24 in 1992. Mechanic Mark Reilly, a white man, was never charged for allegedly shooting William, nor did the case ever go to trial.
Strong Island focuses on the impact of William's passing, and features emotional interviews with Ford's family and community. It also places emphasis on injustices in the American judicial system, and the fear and stigmatisation of black people in the United States.
Ford placed great efforts to not give any space to his brother's alleged killer in his film, instead focusing the film's energy on the grief and devastating impacts his family, friends, and community felt after the murder.
The emotional documentary took ten years to make, and has altogether received 12 awards, and 11 nominations. It also has (at time of publication) a very rare score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film's Twitter account posted a heartwarming video of Ford and his partner Amanda reacting to the announcement of Strong Island's Oscar nomination:
As well as nominating the first ever transgender director, this year's Academy Awards also sees the first female cinematographer nominated, with Rachel Morrison nabbing a nomination for Mudbound.
