To many people's surprise, the film was not nominated for Best Picture or Best Director at the Academy Awards. The film only earned two Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay, Spike Lee's first Oscar nomination, and for Best Supporting Actor for Danny Aiello. At the Academy ceremony Kim Basinger, who was a presenter that evening, stated that "Do the Right Thing" also deserved a Best Picture nomination stating, "We've got five great films here, and they are great for one reason, because they tell the truth, but there is one film missing from this list because ironically it might tell the biggest truth of all and that's "Do the Right Thing"". The film that did win Best Picture was "Driving Miss Daisy" a film which focused on race relations between an elderly Jewish woman (Jessica Tandy) and her driver (Morgan Freeman). Lee said in an April 7, 2006 interview with "New York" magazine that the other film's success, which he thought was based on safe stereotypes, hurt him more than if his film had not been nominated for an award.