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Another day, another mountain of bad press for Nate Parker and Fox Searchlight. If there’s any kind of silver lining for Hollywood, it’s that The Birth of a Nation is not the only film out this year featuring critically acclaimed performances from black actors. AOL did a rundown of some of the films which should be considered as a backlash to the #OscarsSoWhite stuff: the film Loving, Denzel Washington’s Fences, Taraji Henson and Octavia Spencer in Hidden Figures, Lupita Nyong’o in Queen of Katwe, Will Smith in Collateral Beauty and more. Those are just some of the films to note when someone says “But Nate Parker was the only one who should have won an Oscar this year!” So, let’s get to today’s Nate Parker headlines.

Toronto is not Team Parker. While TIFF is going ahead with their gala premiere of The Birth of a Nation, TIFF’s organizer has made it clear that they will not give Nate Parker a forum to explain the 1999 rape case, or why he chose to work with Jean Celestin, who was initially convicted of raping an 18-year-old Penn State student. TIFF’s spokeswoman told media outlets that a press conference for the film is “definitely not going to happen,” and she made it sound like that was the organizers’ choice. Fox Searchlight insists that the no-presser thing was their call, and they never do press conferences when it’s not a world premiere. Fox Searchlight also says that Nate Parker will be available for press, just one-on-one interviews (like, a TIFF junket).

Oscar voters aren’t interested in seeing the film. What will probably be the first of many announcements from Oscar voters, an Academy member from the executive branch named Marcia Nasatir tells AOL: “Personally, I find it really hard to separate the man from the film when he wrote, directed and starred in it. Do I want to see a movie from someone who has committed an assault against a woman and who I do not think recognizes his guilt? Right now, based on what I’ve read, I would not go to the movie.”

Harry Belafonte is suspicious. Much like Al Sharpton, Belafonte thinks there might be some kind of campaign against Nate Parker. Belafonte’s comments are so disappointing here. He says: “It’s interesting because it’s coming out the same time the film’s coming out. Of all the stories you can tell, why are you telling this story? And if he was somebody who had committed a crime and got away with it, but he faced the justice system. The fact that (the system) may have screwed up, the fact that it didn’t really take care of justice, the fact that he should have been punished or whatever is history. The fact is that he was confronted and then he did go through the process. Why are you bringing this up now? What has he done that requires this kind of animus?”

And finally, there are some people coming to Nate Parker’s defense – some of his former Penn State classmates. You can read their comments here at The Root. I didn’t really understand their argument – I think they’re saying Nate Parker didn’t even know the school was being sued for not properly protecting an alleged rape victim… from Nate’s stalking and harassment.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
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