WEEK IN WOMEN: PGA honors Chinonye Chukwu’s TILL with Stanley Kramer Award- Brandy McDonnell reports

The Producers Guild of America has named Chinonye Chukwu’s fact-based drama Till as its 2023 Stanley Kramer Award honoree. The Stanley Kramer Award lauds a production, producer, or other individuals whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues, the PGA revealed on Facebook. Producers Keith Beauchamp, Barbara Broccoli, Whoopi Goldberg, Thomas Levine, Michael Reilly and Frederick Zollo will share the honor at the ceremony at the 34th Annual Producers Guild Awards, scheduled for Feb. 25 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.

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The Most (and Least) Fun at the Movies in 2022 – Commentary by Chaz Ebert

This is my joyous listing of six films I am glad I saw, and a seventh film that was the least fun! The most fun I had is during the screening of Indian director S. S. Rajamouli’s epic RRR. I did not know about the active cult following Rajamouli had acquired in the United States, so I was unprepared for the high excitement that rippled through the Music Box Theatre in Chicago as he made his way to the stage. Not only were there rambunctious hoops and hollers, but some people were dressed in festive cultural attire.

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SPOTLIGHT November 2022: Barbara Broccoli, Beloved BOND and Beyond

Barbara Broccoli epitomizes what a great producer should be: smart, creative, passionate, tenacious, and successful. Along with her half-brother Michael G. Wilson, she oversees one of the longest-running, most acclaimed, and most financially successful film franchises in the world. But she is not content with that achievement alone and consistently seeks to produce other films and theatrical stage productions as well as engage in philanthropy and activism. As a teenager she knew she wanted a career in the film industry and she set out with fierce determination to achieve that end and has risen to the top in her field with the awards, critical acclaim, financial success and respect of her peers to prove it.

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TILL – Review by Martha K Baker

Till is a powerful movie. Its strength rises not just from the story of racism it tells, for the background story has been told often, and not just from its unique perspective, but also from its stunning presentation in film form. Till is about Mamie Till-Mobley — the mother, the mourner — more than about her murdered son. Till is a woman’s story. It catches the breath of life and demands attention.

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TILL – Review by T.J. Callahan

Fourteen year old African American, Emmett Till was lynched in a small town in Mississippi back in 1955 because he told a white store clerk she looked like a movie star. His mother wasn’t going to sit back and watch her only child become a forgotten soul of racism. She fought back. And she fought back hard. Writer/Director Chinonye Chukwu gives us a gripping and empowering film that tells the story of Emmett through Mamie Till-Mobley’s eyes and heart. Till is a hard movie to watch. It’s the hard that makes it essential viewing.

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WEEK IN WOMEN: Chinonye Chukwu’s TILL premieres at NYFF opening weekend Brandy McDonnell reports

Chinonye Chukwu’s anticipated feature film Till will have its world premiere at the 60th New York Film Festival on opening weekend. The 60th New York Film Festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center, will take place Sept. 30-Oct. 16. Till” tells the true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett Till. In 1955, Emmett was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. In Mamie’s poignant journey of grief turned to action, audiences will witness the universal power of a mother’s courage and its ability to change the world.

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