African-American Film Critics Association Awards – Nikki Fowler reports
The African-American Film Critics Association’s (AAFCA) awards ceremony, held on March 1 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, marked a much-deserved moment of celebration for Black creators and actors who’ve been unexpectedly snubbed by other awards groups this year. Although no longer tagged as #OscarsSoWhite, the Academy Award nominations slate had glaring omissions of Black creatives and actors, including Gina-Prince Bythewood and The Woman King, Chinonye Chukwu and Till and Elegance Branton and The Inspection, and all of the brilliant talent associated with those and other superb Black films. Bafta, too, did not have one Black winner at their awards show. In that respect, this awards season has been shocking.
The annual celebration, now in it’s 14th year, was attended by Viola Davis, Angela Bassett, Will Smith, Danielle Deadwyler and Ryan Coogler, with presenters including Meagan Good, Courtney B. Vance, Jordan Peele, Omarion, and Vanessa Bell Calloway, to name a few.
Black female creatives who were shut out elsewhere in the awards circle, were heralded during the ceremony, with the prestigious Impact Award going to Till director by Chinonye Chukwu and Best Actress award going to Danielle Deadwyler for her performance as Mamie Till-Bradley, the mother of 14-year-old Emmitt Till who was lynched in the South during the 1950s. By allowing the press and public to view his open casket and see what was done to her son, Mamie Till-Bradley sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Till also garnered The Emerging Face award for Jalyn Hall who played Emmitt (and also appeared in Brusier).
Addressing the absence of Black nominees in other awards organizations, Deadwyler’s acceptance speech focused on erasure, criticizing politicians who’ve made recent headlines for banning African American history. She stated: “The act of looking, the act of witnessing is at present a dire choice.” Deadwyler called out the “forces that seek to exclude our work.” She continued, “we pursue that which has been prohibited. We read the banned books, we watch the dire films at the encouragement of the caring critic. We share them still.”
Gina-Prince Bythewood received the Best Director award for her Sony masterpiece The Woman King. Bythewood said in her acceptance speech speech that, “The Woman King was such a profound experience … It was absolutely the hardest shoot of my career, but also the most beautiful. I truly loved making this film. And what amplified the love is that we got to reframe history, our history, which has been so bombarded with historically inaccurate information. For so many of us, our history is talked about as enslavement and victimization and savagery. Being able to do The Woman King and tell our story the right way machetes that.”
Starring Viola Davis, Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Hero Fiennes Tiffin and John Boyega, The Woman King was beautiully crafted with some of the year’s best cinematography, costumes, hair and makeup, and action scenes. And, Viola Davis’ performance has been widely lauded as the best of her career.
Angela Bassett, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for Black Panther, Wakanda Forever stated, “Every role that I have taken on has been to break through those perceptions of us as Black women, to show our humanity, to tell the diversity of our stories, and to share the complexities of what it means to be Black and woman.”
Actress Charmaine Bingwa and AAFCA founder Gil Robertson presented The Beacon Award to Will Smith and director Antoine Fuqua for their work on Apple TV’s Emancipation which was praised as a cinematic masterpiece. Emancipation was based on the story of real-life ‘Whipped Peter’ whose photo in 1863 made history when he escaped slavery in Louisiana making his way to Union Soldiers encamped at Baton Rouge. Peter was photographed to document the ills of slavery by showing the many scars he had on his back from whippings. Emancipation’s unique cinematography by Robert Richardson took viewers into this daunting and fearful journey pulling from the color palette of the original photo. The landscapes of the treacherous journey through the bayous are mostly shot in black and white with hints of greens, oranges, and reds.
Smith stated, “Emancipation was the individual most difficult film of my entire career. It’s really difficult to transport a modern mind to that time period. It’s difficult to imagine that level of inhumanity.” Smith thanked Bingwa, who costarred in the film.
Alice Diop’s Saint Omer received the award for Best International Feature.
Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery won the Best Writing award for Rian Johnson and the award for Best Ensemble, which included Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.
Rihanna took home the win for Best Song for Lift Me Up from Black Panther, Wakanda Forever. Ryan Cooglar, who serves as one of the song’s co-writers presented The Ashley Boone Award to fellow producer, Nate Moore for the same film and gave a background on how the two met and Wakanda Forever came to be.
Production Designer and Academy Award winner Hannah Beachler was honored with the Building Change Award, presented by Lowes, and it was thrilling to see a montage on the miraculous strides she’s made and what she’s had to overcome to sit where she is in the industry. Beachler was the first Black person ever to be nominated in the Production Design category by the Academy, and she is best known for her work on Creed, Miles Ahead, and Beyonce’s TV special and visual album Lemonade.
Sidney, Reginald Hudlin’s documentary about Sidney Poitier won Best Documentary.
Composer Kathryn Bostic was in attendance to present composer Michael Abels with The Innovator Award for his score of Jordan Peele’s Nope. Abels has worked on other Peele projects including both Get Out and Us which was short-listed for the Oscars.
EDITOR’S NOTE: A full listing of the AAFCA Awards can be found at aafca.com.
