Whoopi Goldberg addresses Till Oscars snub live on The View moments after nominations

The Oscar-winning Ghost actress referenced Till's snub hours after the Academy — who sits on the group's board — didn't nominate star Danielle Deadwyler in Best Actress.

Academy board member Whoopi Goldberg isn't happy about her long-gestating Emmett Till movie's absence on the 2023 Oscar nominations list.

The Oscar-winning Ghost actress — who sits on the group's Board of Governors representing the Actors Branch alongside Rita Wilson and Marlee Matlin — addressed the Academy's failure to recognize director Chinonye Chukwu's Till for any awards on Tuesday morning while she kicked off a live episode of The View hours after the nominations announcement.

Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till Mobley and Whoopi Goldberg as Alma Carthan in TILL
Lynsey Weatherspoon / Orion Pictures

"Before we start off, we just want to celebrate the talented artists and filmmakers who were nominated for Oscars this morning," the 67-year-old View moderator and Till producer said. "Unfortunately, my film, Till, was not nominated, but we do want to congratulate all the nominees, because many of them have been here and it's wonderful to say congrats, so that's what we'll do."

Given its lack of overall accolades on the precursor circuit, Till wasn't expected to receive nominations in categories like Best Picture or Best Director, but star Danielle Deadwyler — who leads the film as the real-life Emmett Till's mother, Mamie, who fought for justice after her son was lynched in 1955 — was widely expected to appear among the Best Actress nominees after securing similar nominations from the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, and the BAFTA Awards.

Goldberg, who also stars in the film as Emmett's grandmother, Alma Carthan, made headlines in October 2022 after addressing a critic who wrote about the actress' "distracting fat suit" in the movie.

"There was a young lady who writes for one of the magazines, and she was distracted by my fat suit in her review," Goldberg said on an episode of The View at the time, referencing a line that EW confirmed was eventually deleted from The Daily Beast's review of the project. "I don't really care how you felt about the movie, but you should know that was not a fat suit, that was me.... I assume you don't watch the show, or you would know that was not a fat suit."

Till Danielle Deadwyler
Director Chinonye Chukwu's 'Till'. Lynsey Weatherspoon / Orion Pictures

EW later spoke to Chukwu about the years-long process of bringing the story to life with Goldberg as a producer and members of the Till family on board with the collaborators' vision for the story.

"My approach to making this film was that this was always a story about Mamie," she said. "It's her emotional journey, but it's also her journey into having an activist consciousness. I never approached the writing or the directing of this film through the lens of: This is a story about the violence that happened to Emmett."

The 95th Academy Awards will air Sunday, March 12, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC, with Jimmy Kimmel returning as host. Before then, see the full list of 2023 Oscar nominations below.

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best films.

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