Academy Awards Blasted After Promoting Chadwick Boseman NFT

The Academy Awards are under fire for a number of factors regarding the late Chadwick Boseman. Sunday's show ended in a highly bizarre fashion, with the Oscars producers switching the traditional order of the show's awards so that the Best Actor Oscar went last, evidently a bet that the award would go to Boseman for his performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. The award instead went to Anthony Hopkins for his performance in The Father, who wasn't in attendance to accept it, ending the show with a hugely anti-climactic whimper.

While the dust settles from the extremely bizarre finale, internet attention has turned to another bewildering "tribute" the Oscars paid to Boseman in the form of a Boseman NFT gifted to attendees. The NFT designed by Andre Oshea, and apparently climbed to a staggering $1.2 million "buy now" price before it went to auction on Rarible.

The buy now price for this is 1.2M
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

I want to stress the importance of that because this is a price point that a black artist in the NFT hasn’t been able to break yet.

We have the opportunity to create REAL history with this piece.

— ●●● (@andreoshea) April 24, 2021

NFTs are already controversial for a number of reasons as people question their legitimate value and criticize the harm producing them does to the environment, and the Boseman NFT seemed tone-deaf at best to fans of the late actor.

Real history huh? Where’s the punchline? Because there’s no way destroying the environment and slapping a 1.2 million dollar price point on that is REAL history. This is disgusting

— Braxto (@TheBraxto) April 25, 2021

I'm selling screenshots of this for $45 a piece. You can send me the money via PayPal. I'll donate 40 to the charity of your choice and keep 5 bucks for myself. pic.twitter.com/4kKnn5G2Ad

— Matthew (@Matthew_Spicer) April 25, 2021

To be fair, the Oscars did not commission the NFT: that was done by L.A. Marketing Company Distinctive Assets. The idea was that the NFT would be auctioned off and 50% of the proceeds would go to the Colon Cancer Foundation. Initial reports said the NFT was included in an Oscars swag bag, but Oshea has stated that is not the case. He also stated after the blowback that he would be redesigning the piece.

This past week has been a huge learning experience for me, and I appreciate all of the feedback on my work, especially from my friends and family.

Here is a statement about this weekend’s events. Thank you to everyone who has shown me support, I am deeply grateful. pic.twitter.com/tvNHGdAMzE

— ●●● (@andreoshea) April 26, 2021

“I now recognize that Chadwick’s face is a triggering reminder of his death rather than his life, and I will be redesigning the artwork to be auctioned off later this week,” said Oshea.