ST. LOUIS (KMOX) — The Academy Award nominations are in, and a rapper-turned-Missouri state lawmaker from St. Louis is on the list.
The MTV-produced "St. Louis Superman" has been nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject.
The description of Bruce Franks Jr. for the film notes his history as a Ferguson activist, battle rapper, and his election "to the overwhelmingly white and Republican Missouri House of Representatives." It goes into the reasons why Franks stepped down from that post, including "personal trauma and political obstacles."
You can watch a trailer for "St. Louis Superman" below.
It is up against four other shorts:
IN THE ABSENCEYi Seung-Jun and Gary Byung-Seok Kam
LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU'RE A GIRL)Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva
LIFE OVERTAKES MEJohn Haptas and Kristine Samuelson
WALK RUN CHA-CHALaura Nix and Colette Sandstedt
The 2020 Oscar nominations were released on Monday and “Joker” topped all films with 11 Academy Awards nominations, while Martin Scorsese’s elegiac crime epic “The Irishman,” Quentin Tarantino’s 1960s Los Angeles fairy tale “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood” and Sam Mendes’ World War I tale “1917” all trailed close behind with 10 nods apiece.