Malia Obama's Nike Ad Slammed By Sundance Director Over 'Echoes' Of Her Short
Following Malia Obama's short film debut at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, the budding filmmaker is accused of lifting heavy inspiration from a fellow director.
Natalie Jasmine Harris, whose short Grace competed alongside Obama's The Heart at last year's festival, said she saw 'a lot of similarities' between her title and the former first daughter's recent Nike ad starring WNBA's A'ja Wilson.
More from Deadline
Donald Glover On Mentoring Malia Obama With Short Film For Gilga, Landing Liam Neeson Cameo On 'Atlanta' & Not Getting Cast On 'SNL'
A24 Partners With 'Hereditary' And 'Talk To Me' Producers For Feature Adaptation Of Masha Ko's Sundance Short 'The Looming'
New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern Docu 'Prime Minister' Acquired By Magnolia, HBO Docu Films & CNN Films After Prize-Winning Sundance Bow
'At first, I was confused, wondering whether it was real,' wrote Harris in a Business Insider essay about her reaction to discovering the commercial. 'It featured two people playing pat-a-cake in a way that echoed an early scene from my 14-minute short film Grace, which is a Black Southern Gothic short about a girl who's being baptized and questioning her feelings for her best friend.'
Deadline has reached out to reps for Obama and Nike for comment.
Harris noted she met Obama (who uses the professional credit Malia Ann) 'at the director's brunch and a couple other events' when their shorts were both in competition.
'Initially, I was disappointed and hurt — not just for myself but for my entire team,' she continued. 'I sent the commercial to friends who had the same reaction I did. One put together a shot-by-shot photo comparison.
'Since posting about the issue online, there have been a lot of people who don't understand my disappointment. They're like, 'You didn't invent pat-a-cake.' And that's very true. But it's not about the game, it's about the cinematic tools used to depict it,' explained Harris.
The NYU-educated director noted similar camera angles, framing composition and color palettes between Grace and the Nike ad.
Been sitting with this for a while. My Sundance short film GRACE (shot brilliantly by Tehillah de Castro) was made with deep love and care. The social cut of the new @Nike commercial directed by Malia Obama (who was also at Sundance my year) feels shockingly similar to my work… pic.twitter.com/iy2N2krpQN
— Natalie Jasmine Harris (@nataliejharris) May 6, 2025
'Over time, I've moved through that initial shock into a deeper frustration around how instances like this are very common — and need to change,' wrote Harris. 'It speaks to a larger issue of brands not supporting independent artists and opting for folks who already have name recognition, which doesn't breed innovative films or original storytelling. If they wanted these shots that were similar to my shots, why not hire me to direct?'
She added, 'The route that used to work for the Spike Lees and Steven Spielbergs of the world feels less viable today. If we're continuously overlooked, how is the next generation of filmmakers going to exist?'
Harris said she's yet to hear from Obama or Nike, 'but I would like for there to be some acknowledgment,' adding: 'I was initially hesitant to speak out, since it involves a former president's daughter and a beloved brand like Nike. Criticizing something involving the WNBA was also hard because it means a lot to me personally, and it already gets such a lack of a spotlight. But I've poured too much into my work to just sit by and watch.'
Best of Deadline
All The 'Mission: Impossible' Movies In Order - See Tom Cruise's 30-Year Journey As Ethan Hunt
Denzel Washington's Career In Pictures: From 'Carbon Copy' To 'The Equalizer 3'
2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
California Senate Approves Film & TV Tax Credits Bill
In a near-unanimous vote, the California Senate today passed its version of legislation aimed at expanding and retooling the state's Film and Television Tax Credit Program. The vote on Senate Bill 630 was 34-1, with the only nay coming from Sen. Roger Niello, who represents the city of Sacramento and surrounding areas. The bill (read it here) now moves on to the state Assembly. More from Deadline Show Us The Money: When Can Productions Expect To Reap Benefits Of California's Proposed $750M Film & TV Tax Credit Expansion? SAG-AFTRA's 'Here's Looking At You L.A.' & Mayor Karen Bass Push For State & Federal Tax Incentives To Get Hollywood Working Again Sweetened New York Production Incentives A Go As State Budget Passes Along with Assembly Bill 1138 — which passed the Appropriations Committee last month — the legislation would expand the definition of a qualified motion picture, allowing additional projects to apply for the program, including series with episodes averaging 20 minutes or more, animation films, series, and shorts, and large-scale competition shows. After years of strife for the California film and television industry, Gov. Gavin Newsom in October proposed a significant increase to the overall cap on incentives, more than doubling it from $330 million to $750M annually. SB630 and AB1138 seek to do more than just provide additional finance incentives to studios who bring physical production back to California. The sister bills also are meant to 'amend, update, and modernize' the program. The legislation comes amid the latest spurt of runaway production as other states ramp up their film and TV tax incentives programs in an effort to lure production away from California. New York last month passed a state budget that includes expanded incentives. RELATED: Also getting Hollywood's attention is President Donald Trump's bombshell announcement of planned tariffs on movies produced outside the U.S., which were decried many in the industry, along with Newsom, who said Trump has 'no authority' to impose the tariffs. Here is how the voting on SB630 went: Best of Deadline 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More Everything We Know About 'Nobody Wants This' Season 2 So Far List Of Hollywood & Media Layoffs From Paramount To Warner Bros Discovery To CNN & More
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Clint Eastwood Says Hollywood Has Too Many Sequels: Where Is the Next ‘Casablanca'?
UPDATE: In a statement to Deadline on Monday, June 2, Clint Eastwood disputed ever giving the interview with the Austrian newspaper Kurier and called the comments in it 'entirely phony.' 'A couple of items about me have recently shown up in the news,' Eastwood told Deadline. 'I thought I would set the record straight. I can confirm I've turned 95. I can also confirm that I never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier, or any other writer in recent weeks, and that the interview is entirely phony.' More from IndieWire Luca Guadagnino Attached to Direct AI Business Comedy 'Artificial' for Amazon MGM Austrian Publication That Ran 'Phony' Clint Eastwood Interview Cuts Ties with HFPA Member Author ORIGINAL STORY: Clint Eastwood wants Hollywood to only greenlight original films instead of relying on sequels and franchise installments. The auteur, who yes, did have his own franchise with five 'Dirty Harry' films, clarified that after directing features for decades, he now sees the value in standalone works instead. The 'Juror #2' director told Austrian newspaper Kurier, as translated by Reuters, that Hollywood has to exit the 'era of remakes and franchises' to usher in new classics. 'I long for the good old days when screenwriters wrote movies like 'Casablanca' in small bungalows on the studio lot, when everyone had a new idea,' Eastwood said. 'We live in an era of remakes and franchises. I've shot sequels three times, but I haven't been interested in that for a long while. My philosophy is: do something new or stay at home.' Eastwood credited the studio system for inspiring his directing career, which began in 1971 with 'Play Misty for Me,' in which he also starred. His enduring legacy will continue so long as he can still make movies, the Oscar winner assured. 'As an actor, I was still under contract with a studio, was in the old system, and thus forced to learn something new every year,' Eastwood said, 'and that's why I'll work as long as I can still learn something, or until I'm truly senile.' He added that he has no plans to retire and will still be working 'for a long time yet,' saying, 'There's no reason why a man can't get better with age. And I have much more experience today. Sure, there are directors who lose their touch at a certain age, but I'm not one of them.' Eastwood previously told The Metrograph that he doesn't reflect on past films too much. 'If I'm happy with it, that's it. As far as if anybody else has a different feeling about it, well that's theirs. I'm sure I've had disappointments. If I did, I wouldn't dwell on them,' he said, adding of his film legacy as a whole, 'That would be up to them, to the audiences, to answer. Up to the people on the outside. I just kind of go along. I consider this, again, emotional. It comes upon you. You have a story, you make a movie of it. You have to just go for it. If you think too much about how it happened you might ruin it. I go back and look at films I've made, and I could easily ask, 'Why the heck did I make this?' I don't remember! It might have been a long time ago…' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Clint Eastwood Says Viral Interview with Austrian Newspaper Is ‘Entirely Phony'
Go ahead and make our day, Clint Eastwood. The now 95-year-old actor and director said a viral interview that ran of him in an Austrian publication calling out sequels and franchises is completely fake, as are any quotes attributed to him. The interview was picked up widely, including by IndieWire, despite the Austrian newspaper's circulation reaching only 100,000 people. Eastwood purportedly said that he misses the days when screenwriters would pen original ideas like 'Casablanca' and that we live in an era of franchises and remakes. He even added that he has no plans to retire and that he was prepping a new movie at the age of 95. While we don't doubt that he wants to keep working forever and always appears to be prepping some kind of film, that quote appears to be fabricated as well. More from IndieWire Austrian Publication That Ran 'Phony' Clint Eastwood Interview Cuts Ties with HFPA Member Author 'Ride or Die' First Look: Jamie Foxx Produces Indie Queer Road Trip Thriller Premiering at Tribeca But he now claims the interview simply never happened. 'A couple of items about me have recently shown up in the news,' Eastwood told Deadline in a statement. 'I thought I would set the record straight. I can confirm I've turned 95. I can also confirm that I never gave an interview to an Austrian publication called Kurier, or any other writer in recent weeks, and that the interview is entirely phony.' If the interview is in fact phony, the newspaper picked a fight with the wrong person. In 2021 and 2022, Eastwood won millions in two separate lawsuits against CBD companies that falsely used his name and likeness to sell products. The ads suggested he had given an interview to the 'Today' show about the cannabis sativa plants, but he never gave any such interview and won the lawsuit handily. Eastwood did turn 95, and the four-time Oscar winner's most recent film, the stellar 'Juror #2,' had an unfortunately limited run in theaters last year. He last acted in a film in 2021's 'Cry Macho.' Best of IndieWire Guillermo del Toro's Favorite Movies: 56 Films the Director Wants You to See 'Song of the South': 14 Things to Know About Disney's Most Controversial Movie Nicolas Winding Refn's Favorite Films: 37 Movies the Director Wants You to See
