Can Will Smith’s 'Emancipation' overcome the Slap incident to receive Oscar nominations?

While Will Smith is banned from attending all Oscar events for the next 10 years, he could still receive nominations. Photo: AFP

Will Smith has described working on his new movie Emancipation as "the hardest film of my career”.

Smith is the lead actor and producer of the film which tells the story an enslaved man making a daring escape after hearing whispers that US President Abraham Lincoln has proclaimed that all slaves shall be free.

For the physically and emotionally demanding role, the 54-year-old delivers an impressive performance.

But it remains to be seen how Smith and the film will fare at the upcoming Oscars.

While Smith has resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is banned from attending all Oscar events for the next 10 years for slapping Chris Rock on the Oscar stage, he could still receive nominations.

For Emancipation, if he gets nominated, it would be for the Best Actor and Best Picture categories.

Smith, who became a household name after appearing in the wildly popular sitcom The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, has garnered Best Actor Oscar nominations three times – for Ali, The Pursuit Of Happyness and King Richard.

He finally won an Oscar for King Richard ... but ultimately lost in the eyes of the public, derailing his own career and watching his popularity basically sink.

The fallout from the incident continued as several of Smith’s projects were put on hold.

For a while, it looked like Emancipation’s release date would also be postponed, before Apple decided to go ahead with its release in December.

Will Emancipation change people’s minds about Smith or is it all still too soon?

Whether he gets Oscar love or not, according to Smith, his priorities have shifted – he wants to make more meaningful projects in the near future.

“You know, my life is devoted to creating things that will add, hopefully, to the human transition to love as the 'new operating system'.

“I don’t think only films can be meaningful, anything can be meaningful. It’s just what you centre it on.

“I won’t make any film that I don’t believe there’s something in the character and the story that adds to the human conversation of how we can figure out how to be kinder and more harmonious with one another,” he said.

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Emancipation is available on Apple TV+.