Former NFL Player Matthew Cherry Receives Oscar Nomination For His Animated Short Film “Hair Love”

Matthew Cherry, a Chicago native and NFL-retiree has received an Oscar-nomination for his short animated film Hair Love, an incredibly charming, tear-jerking story about a black father doing his young daughter’s hair for the first time.

Here’s the emotional moment when Matthew and his team found out about the nomination.

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A post shared by matthewacherry (@matthewacherry) on Jan 13, 2020 at 5:47am PST

“Hair Love,” which has an accompanying picture book that became a New York Times bestseller, was released this summer in theaters with “The Angry Birds Movie 2,” and came out in December 2019 on social platforms. The film has received more than 10.8 million views on YouTube alone.

Matthew went on Good Morning America to talk about his accomplishment.

Here’s the full interview of me talking to @michaelstrahan@RobinRoberts & @LaraSpencer about #HairLove and my journey from the NFL to Hollywood from earlier today on @GMA. Check it out. pic.twitter.com/8UWusW2zFj

— Matthew A. Cherry (@MatthewACherry) January 16, 2020

The Academy Awards will air February 9, 2020 at 5:00 PM PST and we’ll be rooting for “Hair Love.”