Will Ferrell mocks Oscar voters for snubbing ‘Will & Harper’

Will Ferrell has lightheartedly mocked Oscar voters for overlooking the Netflix documentary ‘Will & Harper’.

During a recent appearance on ‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’, the actor humorously criticised The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for not nominating the film. ‘Will & Harper’ follows Ferrell and his longtime friend Harper Steele on a cross-country road trip, where they navigate Steele’s coming out as a trans woman, offering an intimate look at friendship and transition.

According to ‘Yahoo! News’, after Stephen Colbert praised the documentary as “one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in years,” he inquired about the Oscar nomination outcome, to which Ferrell replied, “We didn’t get it.” In response, Colbert exclaimed, “Fuck the Academy!”

Ferrell playfully added, “Especially the doc branch. You don’t want to hang out with the doc branch. What a bunch of losers. I hope there’s some of them here tonight: If you’re a member of the doc branch, suck it.”

Though ‘Will & Harper’ made it to the Oscars shortlist for best documentary feature, it did not receive a nomination. The five documentaries that were nominated included ‘Black Box Diaries’, ‘No Other Land’, ‘Porcelain War’, ‘Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat’, and ‘Sugarcane’.

Ferrell and Steele’s friendship began when they worked on ‘Saturday Night Live’ together in the 1990s. Ferrell was a cast member from 1995 to 2002, while Steele was the head writer from 1995 to 2008.

At the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Ferrell spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the documentary’s beginnings. He explained, “The conception of the whole discussion, for some reason in my head, was a documentary. Of course, I made it clear to Harper, ‘I don’t want to exploit our friendship, but this could, I think, be just a wonderful way for us to explore this topic. Obviously, for me to learn, ask all the questions that I have about what you’re going through and who you are, have you changed?’”