Awards season in Hollywood is just getting underway and actor, producer, writer, and director Mark Duplass (Togetherness) wants to know why industry insiders aren’t talking more about his fellow actor, producer, writer, and director Natalie Morales.
Duplass and Morales co-wrote the drama-comedy Language Lessons this year (Morales directed it), which opened in theaters in September. She also directed the teen comedy Plan B on Hulu back in May. Duplass recently wrote an open letter to the “film community (and anyone else listening!)” to urge people to watch the two critically acclaimed and award-worthy films she directed this year.
“Now, it’s awards season, and I find myself asking why Natalie isn’t getting more attention,” wrote Duplass, who first worked with Morales in 2018 on his HBO series Room 104. “And the question is oddly familiar to the one I asked myself when I first met her – why isn’t everyone recognizing the great talent of Natalie?”
Duplass then wondered if Morales has not been recognized this year because “Latinx women are just traditionally left out of the Awards conversation” or because the film’s “distributors don’t have the massive campaign budgets to compete with” bigger studios. Or maybe it’s because she “does not fit inside a clearly defined category.”
Whatever the case may be, Duplass hopes this oversight is remedied sooner than later. If organizations aren’t going to give her any awards this year, he says, the least they can do is acknowledge what she has created over the last couple of years.
“I humbly ask that you take a closer look at Natalie and her work,” he wrote. “Please watch her films. And if you like them, discuss them. Share them with your loved ones. And honor the work of this brilliant artist that deserves way more than she has been given.”
