Colman Domingo is opening up about the “hopeful” message of his latest Oscar-nominated film, Sing Sing.

Domingo, whose work in the film earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor, stopped by Good Morning America on Monday to reflect on what this project means to him.

“It’s such an incredibly hopeful film, and I think we need that — especially where we are right now in the world,” Domingo said. “We need stories about people who feel like they can overcome insurmountable odds.”

He continued, “I feel like that’s the message that I want to lead with as a performer, as a producer and a director in the world. I want to give that. The film is a big beating heart.”

Sing Sing is about the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at New York’s Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison, which sees inmates put together theatrical productions as a means to give them a creative outlet behind bars.

Domingo said the film is “very intimate” and “not political at all” in its message.

“It really is about the possibility of what happens when you pour art and love and humanity into someone else,” shared the actor, who plays John “Divine G” Whitfield, a real-life former inmate who went through the RTA program. “They’re holding onto their humanity, holding onto faith and art while on the inside, and it’s really extraordinary.”

He added, “I know I put everything in my heart and soul into it, because I have so many people that I know who have been incarcerated, how it affects Black and brown men, and I feel like it’s really something I wanted to do.”

The Oscars will take place March 2 at 7 p.m. ET, and will air live on ABC and stream live on Hulu.

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