Now Apple finds itself left with a $120 million unreleased awards-style movie featuring a star no longer welcome at the biggest award show of them all, and a big question: Can the film, even if it succeeds artistically, overcome the baggage that now accompanies Mr. Smith?

Apple would prefer to release the film by the end of the year, making it eligible for awards consideration. However, its release is apparently being pushed into 2023.

Based on the true story of a slave known as “Whipped Peter” (thanks to the infamous scars on his back) who escaped to the North and joined the Union army to fight against his former captors, Emancipation brings forth an important historical subject matter.

Image: Smith Collection / Gado / Getty Images

But could it lose traction thanks to its leading man?

Certainly, unless people are so taken by Smith’s performance that it prompts an Oscar campaign, which then risks upsetting members of the Academy:

“If they shelve the movie, does that tarnish Apple’s reputation? If they release it, does it tarnish their reputation?” asked Stephen Galloway, the dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts and the former executive editor of The Hollywood Reporter. “Hollywood likes a win-win situation. This one is lose-lose.”

Despite hurricanes and COVID-19 delays, filming finished about a month before the 2022 Oscar telecast in March when it was already generating 2023 awards buzz.

The slap has created an awkward tension for sure, which the Academy is eager to just move on from.

But if Emancipation comes out shining, like so many expect it will, then the organisation, along with all of us, will be forced to continue talking about the slappity slap, slap, slap.