Matthew A. Cherry walked away from the NFL in 2007 to pursue his dream of working in Hollywood. Tonight he won his first Oscar award for the animated short,
Hair Love.
Cherry wrote and directed
Hair Love, a seven-minute animated short that tells the heartfelt story of an African American father learning to do his daughter's hair for the first time. Hair Love started as a Kickstarter project in 2017 and blew past its initial goal of $75,000. It raised over $300,000 which, at the time, exceeded the amount raised bya ny other short film project on the platform.
"'Hair Love' was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation, and we wanted to normalize black hair," Cherry said during his acceptance speech. He also dedicated his award to the late Kobe Bryant, the former NBA superstar who died tragically in a helicopter crash last month.
Hair Love debuted in theaters alognside
The Angry Birds Movie 2 in August 2019, but has since been released on YouTube for all to enjoy. Check it out below.