“Black Panther” director Ryan Coogler, who received his first Oscar nomination as a producer for Best Picture on “Judas and the Black Messiah,” declined an invite in 2016 to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, citing “I don’t buy into this versus that.”
Coogler, who remains a nonmemeber, told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview “that after playing college football, applying competition to an art form like film feels strange.”
“I don’t buy into this versus that, or ‘this movie wasn’t good enough to make this list,’ ” Coogler said.
“I love movies. … For me, that’s good enough.