( CNN ) A best picture nomination is not exactly nothing . Many would argue that it 's just about everything . Yet there was brush-fire-level rage on and off the Internet -- see # OscarsSoWhite -- following Thursday morning 's announcement of this year 's Academy Award nominations over the fact that `` Selma , '' the critically acclaimed drama about Martin Luther King Jr. 's epochal campaign for voting rights in the South , received only two Oscar nods , one of them for best picture . ( The other was for best song : `` Glory , '' the Golden Globe-winning anthem co-written by Common and John Legend , which one can safely label the prohibitive early favorite its category . ) Much of the anger was tilted , especially , toward the omission of the film 's director , Ava DuVernay , whose nomination would have broken fresh ground as the first African American woman to compete for the best director Oscar . David Oyelowo 's performance as King was likewise snubbed for a best actor slot while neither Paul Webb 's original screenplay nor Bradford Young 's cinematography , both deemed worthy competitors by movie critics , received the Academy 's acknowledgment in both their respective categories . `` Selma 's '' partisans cried racism at the Academy voters , even though a few of these critics pointed out that this was the pretty much the same Academy that a year ago conferred the best picture , best adapted screenplay and best supporting actress Oscars to `` 12 Years a Slave . '' I was prepared to offer that perspective , too -- until I noticed a distressing dichotomy looming on this branch . A depiction of African Americans in shameful , soul-depleting captivity is one thing ; African Americans organized in open rebellion against their oppressors is very much another . Movie history has many films with black slaves and black victims . It 's much harder to think of a Hollywood movie in which African Americans are depicted as the active agents of their own salvation . `` Selma '' is one of those movies . And its relative dearth of worthy nominations is viewed , fairly or not , as a collective snub of not just a movie , but of African Americans ' vision of their own empowerment . It may have been bad timing , as the movie 's nationwide release only took place last weekend . And many blamed Joseph A. Califano Jr. 's opinion piece in The Washington Post , which excoriated `` Selma 's '' depiction of his former boss , Lyndon B. Johnson , as an impediment in King 's campaign . That some journalists brought up Califano 's grievances in other articles about the film may have contributed to some restraint , at least , in the campaign for greater Oscar support by Paramount , Selma 's distributor . But one wonders about this : We are in a time when the voting rights legislation passed 50 years ago with the active support of both King and LBJ is under siege both in the courts and in some states . Why are people less focused on this clear and present danger and more caught up in questions of historical veracity of a Hollywood movie ? Well ... we 're still weeks away from the final vote . And however the chatter has leaned on `` Selma , '' those who support the movie should be grateful that there is chatter at all carrying the movie to the finish line . With Hollywood , one never knows . That best picture nomination could very well become a best picture win . Why ? Why not ?
Gene Seymour : At # OscarsSoWhite , many complain `` Selma '' Seymour : snub is about race . He says consider difference between Gene Seymour support for `` 12 years a Slave '' and the 'Selma ' Oscar one is about blacks as victims ; One is about strong blacks as agents of their own salvation .