Black Reel Awards Nominations 2014

Posted on December 17, 2014 at 9:14 am

One of the great pleasures of this time of year is voting for so many of my favorite filmmakers as a part of the Black Reel Awards. Thanks, as ever, to Tim Gordon for allowing me to participate. I think it is fair to say we had more and better choices this year than we ever have before. Here are our nominees:

MOTION PICTURE

Outstanding Motion Picture

Belle | Damian Jones (Fox Searchlight)
Beyond the Lights | Stephanie Allain, Amar’e Stoudamire, Reggie Rock Bythewood & Ryan Kavanaugh (Relativity Media)
Dear White People | Justin Simien, Angel Lopez, Lena Waithe, Ann Le, Effie Brown & Julia Lebedev (Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions)
Selma | Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner & Christian Colson (Paramount)
Top Five | Scott Rudin & Eli Bush (Paramount)

Outstanding Actor, Motion Picture

Outstanding Actress, Motion Picture

Outstanding Supporting Actor, Motion Picture

Outstanding Supporting Actress, Motion Picture

Viola Davis | The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (The Weinstein Company)
Carmen Ejogo | Selma (Paramount)
Teyonah Parris | Dear White People (Lionsgate / Roadside Attractions)
Zoe Saldana | Guardians of the Galaxy (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Octavia Spencer | Snowpiercer (The Weinstein Company)

Outstanding Director, Motion Picture

Outstanding Screenplay (Original or Adapted), Motion Picture

Gina Prince-Bythewood | Beyond the Lights (Relativity Media)
John Ridley | Jimi: All is by My Side (XLrator Media/ Open Road Films)
Chris Rock | Top Five (Paramount)
Misan Sagay | Belle (Fox Searchlight)
Justin Simien | Dear White People (Lionsgate / Roadside Attractions)

Outstanding Documentary

Outstanding Ensemble (Awarded to Casting Directors)

Outstanding Foreign Film

Difret (Ethiopia)| Zeresenay Mehari (Moving Turtle)
The Double! (U.K.) | Richard Ayoade (Magnolia Films)
Fishing Without Nets (Kenya) | Cutter Hodierne (Drafthouse Films)
Freedom Road (South Africa) | Shane Vermooten (Media Village Productions)
Half of a Yellow Sun (Nigeria) | Biyi Bandele (Monterey Media)

Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Male

Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Female

Jillian Estell| Black or White (Relativity Media)
Patina Miller | The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1 (Lionsgate)
Teyonah Parris | Dear White People (Lionsgate / Roadside Attractions)
Amber Stevens | 22 Jump Street (Columbia/ MGM)
Kuoth Wiel | The Good Lie (Warner Bros.)

Outstanding Voice Performance

Vin Diesel | Guardians of the Galaxy (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Morgan Freeman | The LEGO Movie (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Maya Rudolph | Big Hero 6 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)
Zoe Saldana | The Book of Life (20th Century Fox)
Damon Wayans Jr. | Big Hero 6 (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

MUSIC

Outstanding Score

Terence Blanchard | Black or White (Relativity Media)
Kathryn Bostic | Dear White People (Lionsgate/ Roadside Attractions)
Danny Bramson & Waddy Wachtel | Jimi: All is by My Side (XLrator Media/ Open Road Films)
Mask Isham | Beyond the Lights (Relativity Media)
Jason Moran | Selma (Paramount)

Outstanding Original Song

“It Ain’t Easy” from Top Five | Written & Performed by: Questlove & Elza Colby (Paramount)
“It’s On Again” from The Amazing Spider-Man 2| Performed by: Alicia Keys & Kendrick Lamar; Written by: Alicia Keys, Pharrell Williams, Hans Zimmer & Kendrick Lamar (Sony Pictures)
“Glory” from Selma | Performed by: John Legend & Common; Written by: John Legend, Common & Che Smith (Paramount)
“Grateful” from Beyond the Lights | Performed by: Rita Ora; Written by: Diane Warren (Relativity Media)
“What is Love” from Rio 2 | Performed by: Janelle Monae; Written by: Janelle Monae, Nathaniel Irvin III and Roman Irvin (20th Century Fox)

INDEPENDENT

Outstanding Independent Feature

Outstanding Independent Documentary

25 to Life | Mike Brown (AAFRM)
Evolution of a Criminal | Darius Clark Monroe
Let the Fire Burn | Jason Osder
Oscar Micheaux: The Czar of Black Hollywood | Bayer Mack
Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People | Thomas Allen Harris

Outstanding Independent Short

#AmeriCan | Nate Parker
Muted | Rachel Goldberg
The Voodoo | Steven Alexander

TELEVISION

Outstanding Television Documentary or Special

Finding the Funk | Nelson George (VH1)
Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown | Alex Gibney (HBO)
On the Run Tour: Jay-Z & Beyonce | Jonas Akerlund (HBO)
The Tanning of America: One Nation Under Hip-Hop | Billy Corben & Alfred Spellman (VH1)
Terror at the Mall | Dan Reed (HBO)

Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series

A Day Late and a Dollar Short | Tom Leonardis, Jeffrey M. Hayes, Bill Haber & Whoopi Goldberg (Lifetime)
Gun Hill | Daniel Hank (BET)
Rosemary’s Baby | Zoe Saldana, Cisely Saldana, Mariel Saldana, Tom Patricia & Robert Bernacchi (NBC)
Seasons of Love | Joshua A. Green, Asger Hussain & Yaron Schwartzman (Lifetime)
The Trip to Bountiful | Bill Haber, Cicely Tyson, Hallie Foote & Jeff Hayes (Lifetime)

Outstanding Actor, TV Movie or Mini-Series

Outstanding Actress, TV Movie or Mini-Series

Outstanding Supporting Actor, TV Movie or Mini-Series

Outstanding Supporting Actress, TV Movie or Mini-Series

Outstanding Director, TV Movie or Mini-Series

Outstanding Writing, TV Movie or Mini-Series

Related Tags:

Awards

Was 2013 the Best Year in History for African-American Films?

Posted on February 25, 2014 at 10:49 pm

Many thanks to Kevin Sampson for inviting me to join my friends Tim Gordon and Jason Fraley and director and DC film office head Pierre Bagley for a lively discussion and debate on movies made by African-American filmmakers.

Tim Gordon Interviews The Sugar Man

Posted on July 21, 2012 at 6:13 am

One of the most fascinating documentaries of the year is “Searching for Sugar Man,” the extraordinary story of musician Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, who made two albums in the 1970’s and then disappeared from performing. It is a moving reminder that each of us has the potential for influence far beyond our ability to imagine.

From the film’s website:

In 1968, two producers went to a downtown Detroit bar to see an unknown recording artist – a charismatic Mexican-American singer/songwriter named Rodriguez, who had attracted a local following with his mysterious presence, soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics. They were immediately bewitched by the singer, and thought they had found a musical folk hero in the purest sense – an artist who reminded them of a Chicano Bob Dylan, perhaps even greater. They had worked with the likes of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, but they believed the album they subsequently produced with Rodriguez – Cold Fact – was the masterpiece of their producing careers.

Despite good reviews, Cold Fact was a commercial disaster and marked the end of Rodriguez’s recording career before it had even started. Rodriguez sank back into obscurity. All that trailed him were stories of his escalating depression, and eventually he fell so far off the music industry’s radar that when it was rumored he had committed suicide, there was no conclusive report of exactly how and why. Of all the stories that circulated about his death, the most sensational – and the most widely accepted – was that Rodriguez had set himself ablaze on stage 4 having delivered these final lyrics: “But thanks for your time, then you can thank me for mine and after that’s said, forget it.” The album’s sales never revived, the label folded and Rodriguez’s music seemed destined for oblivion.

This was not the end of Rodriguez’s story. A bootleg recording of Cold Fact somehow found its way to South Africa in the early 1970s, a time when South Africa was becoming increasingly isolated as the Apartheid regime tightened its grip. Rodriguez’s anti-establishment lyrics and observations as an outsider in urban America felt particularly resonant for a whole generation of disaffected Afrikaners. The album quickly developed an avid following through word-of-mouth among the white liberal youth, with local pressings made. In typical response, the reactionary government banned the record, ensuring no radio play, which only served to further fuel its cult status. The mystery surrounding the artist’s death helped secure Rodriguez’s place in rock legend and Cold Fact quickly became the anthem of the white resistance in Apartheid-era South Africa. Over the next two decades Rodriguez became a household name in the country and Cold Fact went platinum.

The New York Times wrote:

n the other side of the globe, in South Africa, Rodriguez had become as popular as the Rolling Stones or Elvis Presley. But he never knew of that success. He never saw a penny in royalties from it, and he spent decades doing manual labor to make ends meet and raise his three daughters. It wasn’t until fans in South Africa, trying to verify rumors he was dead, tracked him down through the Internet and brought him there to perform to adoring multitudes, that his career was resuscitated.

“This was the greatest, the most amazing, true story I’d ever heard, an almost archetypal fairy tale,” said Malik Bendjelloul, the Swedish director of “Searching for Sugar Man,” a documentary that opens on Friday in New York and Los Angeles. “It’s a perfect story. It has the human element, the music aspect, a resurrection and a detective story.”

My friend and fellow critic Tim Gordon interviewed Rodriguez on his Keeping it Reel podcast (it starts about half an hour into the program) and it is well worth a listen.

Related Tags:

Documentary Music

Keeping it Reel with Film Gordon

Posted on September 4, 2010 at 8:00 am

Thanks so much to my dear friend Tim Gordon for including me on his fall preview show along with film critics Dann Gire (Chicago Daily Herald), Eli Savada (FilmThreat), Wilson Morales (Black Film), Arch Campbell (WJLA-TV), Daryle Lockhart (The Black Box Office), Brandon Fibbs (The Colorado Springs Gazette), Joe Barber (WTOP-FM), Rebecca Cusey (Comcast), TT Stern-Enzi (Cincinnati City Beat), Jen Chaney (Washington Post), Kevin “BDK” McCarthy (FOX 5 DC) and hosts of BlogTalkRadio’s Punch Drunk Critics, Travis Hopson and John Nolan.

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Critics Media Appearances

FilmGordon on BlogTalk Radio

Posted on December 4, 2009 at 11:59 am

Thanks to my dear friend Tim Gordon for inviting me to be a guest on his wonderful FilmGordon show on BlogTalk Radio! We discussed our choices for the Washington Area Film Critics Association end-of-year awards, which will be announced this weekend, so stay tuned.

Related Tags:

Media Appearances