Tag: ava duvernay

The Best Red Carpet Looks at the 2026 Critics’ Choice Awards

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Ariana Grande. Getty Images for Critics Choice

A mere four days into the new year, and the first awards show of 2026 is upon us. Tonight, the Critics’ Choice Awards celebrate the best in film and television, recognizing the finest actors, directors, writers, costume designers, editors and more in the industry.

Along with the usual categories, the 31st Critics’ Choice Awards will include four new honors, for Best Variety Series, Best Sound, Best Stunt Design and Best Casting and Ensemble. Chelsea Handler is hosting the awards show for the fourth year in a row, and the ceremony will once again take place at the Barker Hangar at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California.

It’s always an A-list guest list; this evening’s presenters include Ali Larter, Alicia Silverstone, Allison Janney, Arden Cho, Ava DuVernay, Bradley Whitford, Billy Bob Thornton, Colman Domingo, Diego Luna, Ejae, Hannah Einbinder, Jeff Goldblum, Jessica Williams, Justin Hartley, Justin Sylvester, Kaley Cuoco, Keltie Knight, Marcello Hernández, Mckenna Grace, Michelle Randolph, Noah Schnapp, Owen Cooper, Quinta Brunson, Regina Hall, Rhea Seehorn, Sebastian Maniscalco and William H. Macy.

Sinners leads the film pack with a staggering 17 nods, followed by One Battle After Another‘s still-impressive 14, while Netflix’s limited series, Adolescence, scored the most for television with six, followed by another Netflix show, Nobody Wants This, with five.

Before the awards are handed out, however, the stars will walk the red carpet in the first major fashion moment of 2026. Last year’s show brought us standout looks like Margaret Qualley in ethereal Chanel, Colman Domingo in a brown leather Hugo Boss ensemble, Cynthia Erivo in black peplum Armani Privé and Mikey Madison in vintage Giorgio Armani, so we’re just going to have to wait with bated breath to see what this season’s nominees bring to the table. Below, see the best red carpet fashion moments from the 2026 Critics’ Choice Awards.

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody. Getty Images

Leighton Meester and Adam Brody

Jessica Biel. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Jessica Biel

in Lanvin

Jacob Elordi. Getty Images

Jacob Elordi

in Bottega Veneta

Elle Fanning. WWD via Getty Images

Elle Fanning

in Ralph Lauren

Ariana Grande. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Ariana Grande

in Alberta Ferretti

Chase Infiniti. WireImage

Chase Infiniti

in Louis Vuitton

Amanda Seyfried. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Amanda Seyfried

in Valentino

Natasha Lyonne. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Natasha Lyonne

Britt Lower. Getty Images

Britt Lower

in Bottega Veneta

Michael B. Jordan. Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Cri

Michael B. Jordan

Jessica Williams. WWD via Getty Images

Jessica Williams

Keri Russell. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Keri Russell

Meghann Fahy. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Meghann Fahy

Adam Sandler and Jackie Sandler. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Adam Sandler and Jackie Sandler

Jessie Buckley. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Jessie Buckley

in Dior

Rose Byrne. Getty Images

Rose Byrne

in Valentino

Ego Nwodim. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Ego Nwodim

in Carolina Herrera

Kristen Bell. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Kristen Bell

in Elie Saab

Michelle Randolph. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Michelle Randolph

Ethan Hawke. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Ethan Hawke

in Bode

Sarah Snook. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Sarah Snook

Paul Mescal. WireImage

Paul Mescal

in Gucci

Emily Mortimer. Getty Images

Emily Mortimer

Mckenna Grace. Getty Images

Mckenna Grace

Quinta Brunson. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Quinta Brunson

Renate Reinsve. WireImage

Renate Reinsve

in The Row

Mia Goth. WWD via Getty Images

Mia Goth

in Dior

Ginnifer Goodwin. WireImage

Ginnifer Goodwin

Kaley Cuoco. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Kaley Cuoco

Noah Schnapp. WWD via Getty Images

Noah Schnapp

Chloé Zhao. Getty Images

Chloé Zhao

Chase Sui Wonders. WireImage

Chase Sui Wonders

Justine Lupe. Getty Images

Justine Lupe

Odessa A’zion. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Odessa A’zion

in Ott Dubai

Chelsea Handler. Getty Images

Chelsea Handler

in Monique Lhuillier

Sara Foster. WWD via Getty Images

Sara Foster

in Monique Lhuillier

Erin Foster. Getty Images

Erin Foster

Bella Ramsey. WireImage

Bella Ramsey

Alicia Silverstone. Getty Images

Alicia Silverstone

in Stella McCartney

Erin Doherty. Getty Images for Critics Choice

Erin Doherty

in Louis Vuitton

Ali Larter. Getty Images

Ali Larter

in Nina Ricci

Sheryl Lee Ralph. Getty Images

Sheryl Lee Ralph

in Tony Ward Couture

Jackie Tohn. Getty Images

Jackie Tohn

Rose McIver. Getty Images

Rose McIver

Danielle Brooks. Getty Images

Danielle Brooks

Hannah Einbinder. Variety via Getty Images

Hannah Einbinder

in Louis Vuitton

Ejae. Getty Images

Ejae

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Morgan Halberg

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January 4, 2026
How Hollywood Fell For Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’: “I’ve Never in 30 Years Had This Reaction”

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As the clock crossed midnight on Labor Day, the tide at this year’s Telluride Film Festival started to turn against Frankenstein. After Guillermo del Toro’s lavish adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel had launched in Venice days earlier to strong if not effusive reviews, star Oscar Isaac hopped on a plane to introduce the film’s secret, ultimately unfortunate North American debut at a late-night screening in the Colorado Rockies. I’ve been to screenings in Telluride like this before, where you can hear the restlessness in the room, feel the sense that it’s not playing as the filmmakers surely hope. My colleague Scott Feinberg wrote that the U.S. premiere “engendered a more muted response,” questioning its viability as an awards contender. Most coming out of that screening felt the same way.

Three months later, Frankenstein has re-emerged as a heavyweight, consistently racking up nominations totals in the same league as front-runners One Battle After Another, Sinners and Hamnet. (It’s up for best picture, directing, and acting at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.) A best picture nomination suddenly seems assured, and Jacob Elordi is a strong supporting actor contender. While Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite played better in Venice, and Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly surged in Telluride, there’s no denying that del Toro’s film has secured the top spot among Netflix’s typically busy slate.

The robust response from audiences continues to fuel the momentum. Immediately after Telluride, Frankenstein was the runner-up for the Toronto International Film Festival’s crucial People’s Choice Award; it now has a 94 percent verified audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, among the best of any player in the field. Del Toro has been reposting fan art and testimonials of folks who’ve seen the movie over and over. “Because I’m Mexican, I have what I call the immigration test. When I go through immigration, if they say, ‘What are you working on?’ I say, ‘Oh, the movie’s not going to land,’” del Toro tells me. “But if they say, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to see Frankenstein’ — which is what started to happen — I go, ‘Oh, it’s happening!’”

Guillermo del Toro and Oscar Isaac on the set of ‘Frankenstein’

Ken Woroner/Netflix

The film ranks within the Netflix platform’s top five most-viewed films of the year (within their first five weeks of release) and has been a quiet theatrical success. That latter point is key, since Netflix’s contenders rarely drum up much box-office noise in their qualifying runs — a point that’s been magnified in the conversation around Warner Bros.’ potential sale to the company (which is pending regulatory approval and the fending off of Paramount’s hostile-takeover bid). Indeed, while Netflix does not release box-office data — hence the “quiet” descriptor — Frankenstein has sold out just under 1,000 theaters globally, per sources familiar.

Two months out from its October release, it continues to play in theaters in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Philadelphia, and more cities around the country. “What is insane for me is the way the audience has reacted. I’ve never in 30 years had this reaction. It’s a massive tidal wave of affection,” del Toro says. “I’ve been getting public and private communications from filmmakers I absolutely adore and worship, that talk about the movie with admiration or with great pride.”

In conversations with voters and peers, speaking anecdotally, few filmmakers are brought up as often as del Toro. They’ve felt his support for their own careers. His chants of “fuck AI” at major industry screenings elicit regular cheers, and have become a refrain for like-minded filmmakers such as Rian Johnson. And it’s widely known that Frankenstein is the film that del Toro has long been working towards.

“Since I’ve known you — and that has been awhile — you’ve always talked about, at some point, doing a Frankenstein,” del Toro’s longtime buddy Alfonso Cuarón told him at a recent industry screening. “Your awareness of Frankenstein and cinema go hand in hand.” Meanwhile, Margot Robbie said at a separate event, “I feel like, Guillermo, this is your magnum opus — this is the movie you were born to make.”

Celebrity moderators of post-screening panels for guilds and Academy members are now a staple of any all-out Oscar campaign, but this season, there’s no equivalent for who’s come out for del Toro. Among them, in addition to Robbie and Cuarón: Bill Hader, Jon Favreau, Jason Reitman, Ava DuVernay, Bradley Cooper, Celine Song, Emerald Fennell and Hideo Kojima. Above, you can watch Martin Scorsese emceeing a larger discussion for the film. “It’s a remarkable work, and it stays with you,” he said to the audience. “I dreamed of it.”

Del Toro has already won an Oscar for a Netflix film, with his dark stop-motion take on Pinocchio from 2022 taking home the best animated feature trophy. He’s also a recent best picture and best director winner for 2017’s The Shape of Water. But the Academy’s growing affection for the Guadalajara native arguably became most obvious a few years back, when his divisive and less-seen noir remake Nightmare Alley still eked out a best-picture nod.

Just how far del Toro can run with Frankenstein remains to be seen — the film remains on the bubble for both writing and directing nominations — but his genuine enthusiasm for simply promoting and speaking about it continues to work wonders for the campaign. Even if it’s simply del Toro’s way of coping with having completed his life’s work. “In the middle of the shoot, and then in releasing the movie, I realized that I was entering the most massive postpartum depression,” del Toro admits. “It feels overwhelming, and it leaves you without a horizon.” Fortunately, this creature isn’t just alive, but growing by the day.

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David Canfield

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December 16, 2025
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. forms a political action committee

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The first sorority established for Black women, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., has filed paperwork to form a political action committee (PAC). The new PAC, titled the 1908 PAC, will allow the organization to create the runway in order to raise money in support of federal candidates.

This announcement compliments AKA’s voter registration, education and mobilization campaigns. Harris recently spoke to crowds at the annual convention, Boulé, in Dallas in July. She was rocking the group’s signature salmon pink and apple green while championing the sorority’s impact on her career’s trajectory.

“You are such an incredible part of my journey and I love you guys,” she said, as members shouted “skee-wee,” the sorority’s signature call.

Four years ago at the Democratic National Convention, Harris extolled the virtues of AKA.

“Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha, our Divine Nine, and my HBCU brothers and sisters,” Harris, a member of AKA, said at the time.

The Vice President of the United States, Kamala D. Harris, waves to the crowd after arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Saturday, December 16, 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)

After President Biden announced he would not run for reelection on July 21st, support quickly coalesced around Harris. Later in the day, a group of 44,000 women, largely made up of AKA members, raised $1.5 million for her campaign.

The sorority network includes prominent Democratic donors like Wanda Sykes, Ava DuVernay, who have expressed support for Harris.

The powerful organization raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and “Strolled to the Polls” for Harris in 2020. Currently, AKA is poised to mobilize and organize millions of Black voters in key swing states across the country.

Vice President Kamala Harris pledged at the sorority’s Alpha Chapter at Howard University in 1986. Harris is part of a membership class, ‘The 38 Jewels of Iridescent Splendor,’ a line that consisted of thirty-eight women. Thirty-eight years later, the organization is preparing to participate in what they refer to as, “a serious matter.”

In 2023, Alpha Kappa Alpha created their own credit union, “For Members Only.” FMO is the first Black-owned, women-led, sorority-based digital banking financial institution in the United States. The reason being was to create economic health and financial stability for Black women and women of color.

As far as the polls are concerned, they are reflective of the rising enthusiasm with the Harris campaign. Harris leads Michigan by two points, Pennsylvania by 1.1 points and Wisconsin by 1.8 points, according to the average of swing state polls by FiveThirtyEight. Former President Donald Trump leads in Arizona by less than half a point. He also leads in Georgia by half a point.

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Itoro N. Umontuen

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August 9, 2024
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Put Everything Into ‘Origin.’ She Hopes It Wasn’t in Vain

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Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor still feels caught in the whirlwind of Origin. She went out on a limb to score the lead role in the production that started less than a year ago, and only months later made a splashy bow in Venice. “It feels like something I don’t want to let go,” she tells me. “It feels so fast.”

There’s a deep connection Ellis-Taylor communicates about the film, and particularly the role of Isabel Wilkerson, an author and scholar whose provocative and profound ideas about class and stratification in global history make up the book Caste. Director Ava DuVernay took her ambitious theories and decided to make a movie out of them, both by dramatizing her central areas of inquiry—taking the production from the contemporary U.S. to Nazi Germany to India—and by turning the focus on Wilkerson herself, paralleling her personal journey with her brilliant investigative work. Ellis-Taylor herself had already been a big fan of the Pulitzer Prize-winner’s work. In Origin, she embodies a woman asking huge questions about humanity while experiencing incredible personal loss—a nuanced character arc that DuVernay weaves into the fabric of her emotional cinematic epic.

Ellis-Taylor has experienced a swift rise in Hollywood after years of “toiling in oblivion,” as she put it to me years ago. Last year, she earned her first Oscar nomination for stealing scenes in King Richard, and this is now the richest lead role of her screen career, and she makes good on it with a performance of astounding vulnerability and intellectual prowess. Frustratingly, she and the film, which was acquired out of Venice by Neon, have been struggling for a place in this year’s awards conversation, despite strong reviews and audience response out of festivals. Ellis-Taylor has taken it upon herself to get the word out during Oscar nominations voting (which ends Tuesday) and ahead of the movie’s January 19 theatrical release. Her ultimate hope is that Origin is simply seen.

“My prayer for this film is that it won’t be in vain,” she says of the work to get here. “I know that it will continue to be a grassroots thing, and honestly, I’m not mad about that. I wish we had millions of dollars, so our billboards could be everywhere—it would just make it certainly easier for us—but going to the people, getting the folks involved in it, feels consistent with the spirit of the book.”

In conversation with Vanity Fair, Ellis-Taylor breaks down one of the most complex and fascinating figures she’s ever portrayed.

Vanity Fair: Last time you and I spoke, you’d mentioned the lengths you went to, to get this part, in sending Ava pictures of yourself and Isabel Wilkerson side by side. Can you tell me that story and how you so quickly saw yourself in this woman, this character?

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor: Yeah, I did it. [Laughs] When I knew that there was a conversation about actually making the film, I said, “I want to be in that conversation, I want to be a part of that.” I started looking at her and I said to myself, “If I did the right things, I could make myself look like her.” She has a sort of iconic look. She has pearls, she wears this burgundy sheath dress. I said to my sister, “We’re going to make me look like that.” So we ordered a dress from Nordstrom’s or Bloomingdale’s, I can’t remember which; I got the right makeup at the beauty supply place in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and got me a nice wig. My sister ordered me some pearls from Amazon because Ms. Wilkerson wears pearls often. And I had her take a picture of me, and we sent it to Aisha Coley, who was the casting director for the film.

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David Canfield

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January 12, 2024
Colman Domingo and Ava DuVernay on the Madness, Missteps, and Money of Awards Season

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One thing I noticed is you both, early on, dabbled in journalism in your careers. And I’m curious how you think that interest appears in your work now in film?

Domingo: In every single way. I think I have a journalistic heart. That’s the way I’ve always approached all the work, especially coming from the theater. My friend, Candace Allen, who’s a beautiful writer, says, “Oh, Colman, you’re an archivist.” And I was like, “What?” She says, “Everything you’ve been doing, you’ve been trying to archive who we are right now and really hold a mirror up to who exactly we are right now, the things we love about ourselves, hated culturally, all that stuff.”

And I said, “Wow.” And I had to admit she was right. I think it’s because back in high school, I was on the school newspaper, and that’s where I found my joy. I love writing about things. I watch humanity. It’s funny, I’ve become less shy and I’m sort of, like Ava said, in the center of the party, but I also love to be an observer as well.

DuVernay: You do?

Domingo: Raul [Domingo’s husband] will tell you that when I’m at home, he calls me “the cat” because I’m in my office with my books and I’m reading and I’m looking and I’m laying on the floor. And also, I’m very quiet at home. What about you, Ms. Ava DuVernay, your journalistic heart?

DuVernay: I just think it’s been tough for me to make movies that are not about something real. I can do it, but I don’t enjoy it as much as the ones that require research, the ones that require investigation, the ones that require interviewing, whether it’s When They See Us or 13th or Selma or even Middle of Nowhere, which was just so many interviews to uncover the real women’s stories for that, and certainly, Origin. I love doing DMZ and Wrinkle and those things, but there’s something that beyond a love for just the filmmaking, a deep sense of purpose and meaning in taking more journalistic approach to the filmmaking and the architecture of the story that just really, it’s my thing.

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Rebecca Ford

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January 5, 2024
Finding the ‘Origin’ of the Oscar Problem: Why Isn’t Ava DuVernay’s Best Film Winning Awards?
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Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” is a masterpiece, but so far, the sprawling look at the roots of hate has failed to land some of the major film prizes.

After watching the movie at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, I thought I’d seen a prime Oscar best picture contender, and that DuVernay might get her first directing nomination. Factor in Neon, the film’s distributor and the studio behind “Parasite’s” Oscar-dominating run, and “Origin” seemed poised to be an awards season force.

But I’m beginning to wonder. Early industry awards groups, such as AFI, New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, have all but overlooked “Origin.” It was left off AFI’s list of the 10 best films, and both Critics Choice and Golden Globes passed it over. So what’s going on here?

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Written and directed by DuVernay, “Origin” is an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s bestselling book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” It chronicles the author’s quest to unravel humanity’s divisions as she writes her acclaimed nonfiction work. Guided by a stellar performance from Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard”), the film artfully balances probing inquiries into prejudice with a deeply human examination of love and grief as Wilkerson deals with her own loss.

Is the problem that the predominantly white Academy isn’t embracing a movie by a Black filmmaker that stars a Black actress in a story about the Black experience? Has the film’s marketing campaign failed to convey how universal “Origin’s” story is — and that its themes and concerns resonate with viewers regardless of race, gender, creed or sexual orientation?

For her part, DuVernay dismisses the idea that her film is a “Black movie.” “The film is about a woman who has a question and goes out in the world to find it,” DuVernay tells Variety. “What are films called made by people who aren’t Black? Are they defined by their race? Then why is my film defined by mine?”

She’s asking the right questions, of course. However, the sad fact is that media coverage of movies like Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight” or DuVernay’s own “Selma” too often focuses on the skin color of their creators. That’s particularly infuriating considering that movies from non-Black artists aren’t similarly defined — nobody mentions the race of the director of, say, “Forrest Gump” or “A Beautiful Mind.”

Atsushi Nishijima / Neon

“Origin” is one of the first times Ellis-Taylor has been the lead of a movie, and she presents a heartbreaking and emotional turn that stands as her career’s best work yet. During the run for “King Richard,” for which she received an Oscar nom for supporting actress, she was used to following what the studio and the film’s star and co-producer Will Smith had planned for promoting the movie. “These are things that I was completely unaware of,” she recalls for an upcoming Variety Awards Circuit Podcast episode. “I was having a conversation with my representatives, agent, and manager about promoting the film. I was like, ‘I don’t know anything about that. They just told me where to go. Will [Smith] did this and that.’ And they said to me, ‘Well, now you’re Will.’ And I couldn’t sleep that night. It’s another kind of responsibility because it’s not just about me; it’s about everybody.”

Reviews for “Origin” have been strong. Numerous tastemakers and screenings, both here and abroad, have generated overwhelmingly positive reactions from attendees. Yet, according to one insider, many screenings have struggled to fill their seats. That hasn’t been the case with other Black-centric stories this season, such as Cord Jefferson’s satirical “American Fiction” and Blitz Bazawule’s musical reimagining of “The Color Purple.” Why aren’t people showing up for “Origin”?

This is a great movie. It needs to be seen. Will the Academy and other awards voters give “Origin” the chance it deserves, or are they unfairly dismissing it? DuVernay, like her film’s heroine, poses a more troubling thought: “Would this offering be seen and accepted differently if it came from someone else?”

Read the latest prediction updates below and go to the individual category pages to see where the films and performances rank. Projected winners are marked with red asterisks (***).

Best Picture
“American Fiction” (MGM)
“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“Maestro” (Netflix)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
“Past Lives” (A24)
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
“The Zone of Interest” (A24)

Director
Greta Gerwig — “Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
Jonathan Glazer — “The Zone of Interest” (A24)
Christopher Nolan — “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
Alexander Payne — “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Martin Scorsese — “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)

Best Actor
Bradley Cooper — “Maestro” (Netflix) ***
Colman Domingo — “Rustin” (Netflix)
Paul Giamatti — “The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Jeffrey Wright — “American Fiction” (MGM)

Best Actress
Lily Gladstone — “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
Sandra Hüller — “Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)
Greta Lee — “Past Lives” (A24)
Carey Mulligan — “Maestro” (Netflix)
Emma Stone — “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures) ***

Supporting Actor
Robert DeNiro — “Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
Robert Downey Jr. — “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Ryan Gosling — “Barbie” (Warner Bros.) ***
Charles Melton — “May December” (Netflix)
Mark Ruffalo — “Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)

Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt — “Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
Danielle Brooks — “The Color Purple” (Warner Bros.)
America Ferrera — “Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
Rachel McAdams — “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (Lionsgate)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers” (Focus Features) ***

Original Screenplay
“Anatomy of a Fall” (Neon)
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.) ***
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
“May December” (Netflix)
“Past Lives” (A24)

Adapted Screenplay
“All of Us Strangers” (Searchlight Pictures)
“American Fiction” (MGM) ***
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)

Animated Feature
“The Boy and the Heron” (GKids)
“Elemental” (Pixar)
“Nimona” (Netflix)
“Robot Dreams” (Neon)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures) ***

Production Design
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures)
“Napoleon” (Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures)
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures) ***

Cinematography
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“Maestro” (Netflix)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Saltburn” (Amazon MGM Studios)

Costume Design
“Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (Lionsgate)
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.) ***
“The Color Purple” (Warner Bros.)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)

Film Editing
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“The Holdovers” (Focus Features)
“Maestro” (Netflix)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)

Makeup and Hairstyling
“Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“Ferrari” (Neon)
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Marvel Studios)
“Maestro” (Netflix) ***
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)

Sound
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“Maestro” (Netflix)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
“The Zone of Interest” (A24)

Visual Effects
“The Creator” (20th Century Studios) ***
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” (Marvel Studios)
“Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire” (Netflix)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)
“Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” (Paramount Pictures)

Original Score
“The Boy and the Heron” (GKids)
“Killers of the Flower Moon” (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures)
“Oppenheimer” (Universal Pictures) ***
“Poor Things” (Searchlight Pictures)
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (Sony Pictures)

Original Song
“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie” (Warner Bros.) ***
“I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie” (Warner Bros.)
“The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot” (Hulu/Searchlight Pictures)
“Road to Freedom” from “Rustin” (Netflix)
“Addicted to Romance” from “She Came to Me” (Vertical Entertainment)

Documentary Feature
“20 Days in Mariupol” (PBS)
“American Symphony” (Netflix) ***
“Four Daughters” (Kino Lorber)
“Little Richard: I Am Everything” (Magnolia Pictures)
“The Mission” (National Geographic)

International Feature
“Fallen Leaves” from Finland (Mubi)
“Society of the Snow” from Spain (Netflix)
“The Taste of Things” from France (IFC Films)
“The Teachers’ Lounge” from Germany (Sony Pictures Classics)
“The Zone of Interest” from U.K. (A24) ***

Animated Short
“Backflip” (The New York Times Op-Docs)
“Once Upon a Studio” (Walt Disney Pictures) ***
“Morning Joy” (Liaison Pictures)
“The Smeds and The Smoos” (Les Films du Préau)
“Starling” (The Animation Showcase)

Documentary Short
“The ABCs of Book Banning” (MTV Documentary Films/Paramount+)
“Away” (The New York Times Op-Docs)
“Deciding Vote” (The New Yorker)
“The Last Repair Shop” (Searchlight Pictures) ***
“Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story” (To be announced)

Live Action Short
“The After” (Netflix)
“The Old Young Crow” (Distributor TBA)
“The Shepherd” (Walt Disney Pictures)
“A Strange Way of Life” (Sony Pictures Classics) ***
“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar” (Netflix)

Top 4 Nomination Leaders Tracking (Film)
“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” — 11

“Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Poor Things” — 10

“Maestro” – 7

“The Holdovers” — 6
Top 4 Nomination Leaders Tracking (Studios)
Netflix — 17

Warner Bros. — 13

Searchlight Pictures — 12

Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures — 11
Oscars Predictions Categories

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Clayton Davis

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December 13, 2023
Māori Artist Stan Walker Releases Video for ‘I Am Here’ From Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ (EXCLUSIVE)

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With a few weeks to go until the original song for Oscars shortlist is released, Aotearoa, New Zealand-based Māori Artist Stan Walker (Tūhoe, Ngāi TeRangi, Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Pūkenga, Tūhourangi Ngāti Wāhiao, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Whakaue and Ngai Tahu) has released the video for the haunting original song created for Ava DuVernay‘s searing drama “Origin,”

“This summer, I was talking with my producing partner Paul Garnes about wanting something unexpected for an original song to end our film, ‘Origin.’ The next day, he showed me Stan’s ‘Ultralight Beam’ interpretation and I watched it four times, back to back. I jumped online and blessedly, we had a producer pal of mine, Chelsea Winstanley in common. I DMed Chelsea, and 24 hours later I was on the phone with Stan Walker,” DuVernay said.

Inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent,” the film boasts an all-star cast including Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (“King Richard”), Jon Bernthal and Niecy Nash-Betts.

The film follows Ellis-Taylor’s Isabel on her harrowing journey to write the bestseller as she navigates personal tragedy while exploring how throughout history, from India’s Dalit people to slavery and racism in America, the Holocaust and how caste systems have shaped societies.

DuVernay connected with Walker, trusting him to deliver the powerful song. Walker co-wrote “I Am” with Michale Fatkin, Vince Harder and Te Kanapu. Said DuVernay, “His spirit and creative energy shine through – even on a phone call from across the world. We discovered that we share the same belief — that art can change the world. That the stories we tell one another — through music and through movies — matter.”

Walker said in a statement to Variety, “‘I Am’ is my response to the film. It is about the reclamation, reconciliation and reconnection to our identity and the origins of who we are and where we come from. By knowing who we are we are then able to know where we are going. This is how we unlock our greatest power. ‘I Am’ is taking back the power and giving it back to the people”.

As previously announced, the song will vie for original song consideration. “Origin” opens in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 8 before going nationwide on Jan. 19, 2024.

Listen to the song below.

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Jazztangcay

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November 27, 2023
Inside Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’, a Global Investigation With a Personal Touch

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Caste was a literary phenomenon in 2020, spending 55 weeks on the US bestseller lists and reportedly selling more than 1.5 million copies. Wilkerson, the Pulitzer –winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns, presents a bold and convincing premise, that racism in America is a caste system similar to those in India and Nazi Germany.

When DuVernay first reached out to Wilkerson, the author thought DuVernay wanted to make a documentary like she had with 13th, or perhaps a film focused on the history in the book, as she did in Selma. But DuVernay pitched her on the idea of centering the film on her own journey in actually writing the book, which would require that her personal life become a part of the story. “I explained that it would be important for folks to feel emotionally connected to someone in order to take us through the explanation of what Caste is,” she says. “It has to be personal.”

DuVernay says Wilkerson was quick to agree, and they would talk on the phone as DuVernay worked on the script. “I want the film to be a salute to the reverence that she has for life, the rigor that she has for her work, and to try to put that in this motion picture that would tell the story as I interpreted it through her sharing with me,” says DuVernay.

Shortly before she began work on the book, Wilkerson lost both her husband and her mother; DuVernay captures her grief onscreen in symbolic and tactile ways that make the film feel deeply personal. “Well, I could only tap into my own experiences with grief,” says DuVernay. “What I rendered was what it felt like to me, just using my own personal experiences.”

Jon Bernthal plays her husband, Brett Kelly Hamilton; the actor and DuVernay first met for a long dinner in Savannah, Georgia. She remembers after they closed down the restaurant that night, Bernthal suggested they walk back to their hotels. “It got us into a really interesting conversation about what it’s like to walk down the street in a city you don’t know as a white man, and what it’s like to walk down the street in a city you don’t know as a Black woman,” says DuVernay. She describes him as “a whole vibe. But he’s also insanely talented, and can do a lot more than I think the things that he’s usually thought up for.”

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Rebecca Ford

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September 1, 2023
“A Cautionary Tale”: Yusef Salaam’s Journey From Central Park Five to City Council Is a Lesson in Justice

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Yusef Salaam is greeted within seconds of stepping onto the sidewalk. “Congratulations, I wish you luck,” an elderly man says, before the door of the Frederick E. Samuel Community Democratic Club in Harlem has time to close. Less than a week prior, Salaam officially won in the competitive June 27 Democratic primary for the Harlem city council seat. Campaign fliers urging voters to “Make Yusef Your #1 Choice” still plaster the windows of the club, where Salaam keeps his office. “Thank you, thank you,” Salaam responds. “Always,” the man adds.

On this steamy Monday afternoon, West 135th Street in New York City is bustling, but Salaam, 49, dressed in a double-breasted gray suit over a crisp white shirt, is getting noticed. “Yusef, the brother!” someone shouts from a nearby athletic field. “Congratulations. You can thank Riverton for that,” another man passing in a crosswalk says, a reference to Riverton Square, a cluster of apartment buildings in Harlem. Salaam isn’t your typical local politician; he’s a folk hero, a verifiable celebrity.

As one of the five Black and Latino men exonerated in the 1989 rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park, Salaam’s candidacy has cultivated countless “from prison to city council” headlines already. But the victory is even more remarkable by the numbers. The race against biggest rival Inez Dickens was expected to be tight. Salaam had the backing of Manhattan Democratic Party leader Keith Wright, who recruited him to run for the city council seat, but Dickens was a sitting state assemblywoman with the backing of Mayor Eric Adams, Congressman Adriano Espaillat, and former representative Charlie Rangel. Salaam’s other top rival, Al Taylor, is also a member of the New York state assembly. It turned out to be a wipeout. According to the latest tabulation by the New York City Board of Elections, Salaam won almost 64% of the vote to that of his closest, Dickens 36%. (Without a declared Republican opponent in the general election this fall, Salaam is all but expected to coast to City Hall.)

“This is more than ‘local hero makes good.’ This is ‘nonpolitician, local hero stomps tradition to create a new politics,” Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant who worked on Bill Clinton’s presidential reelection and Michael Bloomberg’s 2009 mayoral campaign, tells Vanity Fair. “Here was a true insurgent whose campaign was being run by a non-insurgent turning out and defeating traditionalists with a life story that was entirely different from anything anybody ever came up with.”

“Oh, man, it’s humbling. It’s humbling,” Salaam says. “It’s painful, too, at the same time for me, because I understand when people want change tomorrow—and they should have gotten change already.” He is still adjusting to this new level of notoriety. “You have to be walking with the people. You got to be a part of the people,” he says. “People need [to know] that you didn’t forget who you are, where you came from.”

Not far from his campaign office, a woman named Jacqueline rushes up to Salaam. She asks if he sees his friends—a reference to the other four members of the so-called Central Park Five, now the Exonerated Five, all as she keeps trying to call her son. The conversation shifts to When They See Us, a Netflix drama miniseries created by Ava DuVernay, that depicts the story of the Central Park jogger case and the convictions of Salaam and Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise. Jacqueline says she can hardly make it through the series. “I am a mother,” she says. “I would go back and forth.” Salaam responds, “You know, so many mothers have told me that same thing.”

As we walk away after snapping a photo for Jacqueline’s son, Salaam reflects on his lack of anonymity. Before his city council run, some would recognize him from the case and his exoneration. Now, the reaction feels like, “Oh, this guy is going to help us,” he says. Before it was simply, “Oh, we are happy he survived.”

Yusef Salaam enters the State Supreme Court in Manhattan with his mother Sharonne Salaam, Aug. 11, 1990.Phillip Schoultz/AP.

A former police captain, Adams ran and won on a platform of neutralizing the “bad guys” terrorizing New York City, harnessing a seemingly national panic around crime-ridden cities. Meanwhile, Salaam’s life is a cautionary tale of emboldening those narratives. “These young men were demonized beyond anything that I had seen before and beyond anything I’ve seen since,” attorney Ron Kuby, who represented Salaam on his appeal and post-conviction alongside the late William Kuntsler, tells VF. “But the lesson of that case, and many other cases like it, is when white people in New York are terrified of crime, innocent Black people pay a heavy, heavy price for that fear. And it’s a cautionary tale about not jumping too quickly and trying to align our fears with the actual facts. Crime is not at an all time high. It’s near an all time low…When we act out of our fears, especially when those fears are grounded in racism, we will do horrible things. And let’s just try not to do it again, shall we?”

When Salaam reflects on the period before he was convicted at just 16 years old, he thinks of Donald Trump, who, to be absolutely clear, is not at all interested in the lesson Kuby laid out. “I had dreams prior to going to prison that everything was going to be okay…Then all of a sudden, now I’m struck by this blow,” he says. That “blow” was the full-page advertisement in four New York City papers, including The New York Times, that Trump paid for, calling to reinstate the state’s death penalty. It didn’t reference Salaam or the four other youths in the Exonerated Five specifically, but everyone knew what Trump’s message was about. That was the moment Salaam says he was “violently awakened” to what he often describes “as the American nightmare.” Salaam spent nearly seven years in prison; he was released in 1997. In 2002, he, McCray, Richardson, Santana, and Wise were exonerated in the rape and assault of Trisha Meili. Trump has never apologized for essentially calling for their death.

The date the advertisement hit newsstands is still top of mind: May 1, 1989. “Donald Trump took out this ad that really was a firestarter to everything else that happened,” he says. “When people ask me, you know, what do you think led to your conviction? It was most certainly the color of my skin. We were convicted before we even went to trial.”

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Abigail Tracy

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July 12, 2023
AP Breakthrough Entertainer: Joaquina Kalukango, in paradise

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NEW YORK — Winning a Tony Award as best lead actress in a musical cemented Joaquina Kalukango’s place in the Broadway firmament. But it also, surprisingly, cemented Kalukango’s belief that she could actually do musicals.

“It was truly a powerful moment, especially for me, because I had such a fear of doing musicals for a very long time. I was an actor at heart,” she says. “I think it was a great moment in my trajectory of owning a new side of myself that I wasn’t that comfortable with sharing for a while.”

Kalukango’s show-stopping performance in “Paradise Square” and especially her heart-felt searing second act song “Let It Burn” routinely drew audiences to their feet, a triumph of the 2021-2022 season.

Kalukango’s astonishing acting and vocal outpouring has made her one of AP’s Breakthrough Entertainers of the Year alongside Stephanie Hsu, Sadie Sink, Tenoch Huerta, Iman Vellani and more.

The Tony win capped an intensely creative period for Kalukango, who earned a 2020 Tony nomination as lead actress in a play for her work in the harrowing “Slave Play,” a ground-breaking, bracing work that mixed race, sex, taboo desires and class.

On film, she played Betty X opposite Kingsley Ben-Adir in Regina King’s directorial debut, “One Night in Miami.” She also had a recurring role on the HBO series “Lovecraft Country” and appeared in Ava DuVernay’s Netflix series “When They See Us.”

“I always felt like I wanted more than anything to be connected to work that kind of shifts the paradigm, that makes people think, that gets people to talk in their communities, that asks questions,” she says.

Raised in East Point, Georgia, Kalukango grew up singing Shania Twain and Whitney Houston. “I wanted to be a singer, but didn’t know that there was an actual path towards that,” she recalls.

At an eighth grade talent show, she sang Monica’s “For You I Will” with enough panache that a counselor suggested she audition for a performing arts high school. She got in and then saw their production of “Once on This Island.”

“I literally remembered just getting full body feels still sitting in the audience, seeing people that looked like me telling this amazing story,” she says.

After graduating from The Juilliard School, Kalukango made her Broadway debut as an understudy in “Godspell” and went on to join the ensemble in “Holler if Ya Hear Me,” a musical inspired by Tupac Shakur’s music and as Nettie in the 2015 Broadway revival of “The Color Purple” starring Jennifer Hudson.

Kalukango’s breakthrough happened when she landed a part in “Paradise Square” about Irish immigrants and Black Americans jostling to survive in New York City in 1863. Her role was widened and deepened until she was the star. Amazingly, she didn’t need to audition.

“It had to pinch myself,” she says. “I was like, ‘OK, kid, here we go. This is something you said you wanted to do and you’re about to face a fear, Let’s see you do it.’”

The past few years have been a coronation in many ways for this Broadway star. She recalls Sarah Paulson giving her a bear hug backstage after seeing her in “Slave Play.” She remembers popping champagne after her Tony win with her “Color Purple” co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Danielle Brooks.

A sign of her new status happened earlier this fall when she was invited to perform at the re-opening of Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center alongside such luminaries as Renée Fleming, Bernadette Peters, Alicia Keys, Sara Bareilles and Vanessa Williams. Leonard Bernstein’s daughter introduced Kalukango, who sang his song “Take Care of This House.”

Next is a return to Broadway this holiday season as The Witch in an acclaimed revival of “Into the Woods” with an all-star roster of talent including Patina Miller, Montego Glover, Stephanie J. Block, Brian d’Arcy James and Joshua Henry. Next year she also starts shooting a film about the Fisk Jubilee Singers.

She also wants to explore comedy after several serious roles. She is inspired by her 5-year-old son to mix it up. “Showing him just a world of imagination and all of that is kind of where I really want to start looking into, too. I want to have fun.”

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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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For more on AP’s 2022 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, please visit: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers

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December 16, 2022
Ava DuVernay Makes History As The First Black Woman On A Ben & Jerry’s Pint

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Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ava DuVernay is making history as the first Black woman to have her image on a Ben & Jerry’s pint.

The beloved ice cream company announced on Tuesday that the 50-year-old — best known for directing popular blockbuster hits such as Disney’s “Wrinkle in Time” and “Selma” — is the face of a new flavor called Lights! Caramel! Action!

“Directed” and personally curated by DuVernay, the ice cream flavor features a mix of vanilla ice cream with salted caramel swirls, graham cracker swirls and gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough.

Available in both milk-based and non-dairy versions, the pints will begin shipping across the country next month.

“Ice cream is a simple joy of life. A comfort food that I’ve turned to on many days — making sunny ones brighter and dark ones sweeter,” DuVernay said in a statement, per Variety.

Calling the opportunity to partner with the long-running ice cream company a “thrill ride,” the primetime Emmy winner added, “I’ve long admired [Ben & Jerry’s] for their commitment to social justice. I had the opportunity to work with food scientists to create a flavor with all the ingredients that I personally love for a cause close to my heart.”

According to DuVernay, amplifying women of color is a major reason behind her team-up with Ben & Jerry’s.

Speaking to People, she explained: “There’s no women of color overall [on Ben & Jerry’s pints]. And so they understood that that’s something that they wanted to change, and I’m happy that I was able to be involved in being a part of that change.”

She added, “I’m not taking it too seriously, but I do think that it’s important to walk through doors that have not been opened. And it’s not an accomplishment because someone has closed the door and then opened it. It is an action that needs to be taken. And so I’m glad that they’ve done it. And if I can support that, I’m happy to do it.”

DuVernay also noted that the proceeds of “Lights! Caramel! Action!” will benefit her non-profit, ARRAY Alliance, which she founded in 2011 to increase the representation of artists of color and women directors.

The new ice cream will not have a limited run and will be available in the U.S. in January 2023.

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December 6, 2022
“Queen Sugar”: A TV landmark for women directors

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In its seven seasons, the TV series “Queen Sugar” has explored modern flashpoints, from #MeToo and race relations to police brutality. But at heart, it’s a drama about three Black siblings struggling to hold on to their late father’s Louisiana sugar farm.

The show’s creator, executive producer Ava DuVernay, said, “I’ve been trying to communicate a core idea, and the core idea is that family in American television should not only mean White families. ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘Little House on the Prairie,’ ‘The Waltons,’ ‘Thirtysomething,’ ‘Friday Night Lights’ – this is a family who plays football, this is a family that’s in the mob, this is a family who owns a funeral home. Like, it goes on and on, but what are none of them? Black.”

Ava DuVernay, the creator of the series “Queen Sugar,” and the founder of Array.

CBS News

DuVernay has long fought to add diversity to Hollywood, directing socially-conscious works like “Selma” and “When They See Us.” With “A Wrinkle in Time,” she became the first Black woman to direct a live-action film with a budget of more than $100 million.

Studies show women direct just under one-fifth of broadcast television programs. So when it came to “Queen Sugar,” a series that airs on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, DuVernay saw an opportunity to make a statement.

Winfrey recalled: “Ava called me up and said, ‘You know, I have this idea that we should do all women directors.’ And I was like, ‘Can we do that? Is that allowed?’”

DuVernay’s response? “I don’t know why we couldn’t.”

Winfrey laughed, “And she says, ‘You can do it, you can do it, it’s your name on the network. If you say you want to do it, you can do it.’ And so I went, ‘Okay, let’s do it!’ And we did it!”

DeMane Davis, Aurora Guerrero and Shaz Bennett had all made independent films, but couldn’t seem to get that next break – none of them had ever directed a TV show before. They would join the 42 women who have directed episodes of “Queen Sugar.”

Davis was a freelance advertising copywriter in Boston and had directed commercials. “I had never thought of directing for television,” she told “Sunday Morning” contributor Mark Whitaker, “because in my experience, you have to have experience to get that job, and you can’t get the job without experience. Total Catch-22.”

Directors Shaz Bennett, Aurora Guerrero and DeMane Davis.

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Guerrero said, “When Ava gave me a call, I was in a hard place. I was feeling a bit hopeless around my career and where it was going to go, because I had never thought about television, to be honest with you. And I feel like that’s something that I learned from Ava in this experience on ‘Queen Sugar,’ is how much I was actually limiting myself in my dreaming, my vision for myself.”

Winfrey says the show’s directors have felt what has been termed the “Ava Effect,” in that, “Every woman director who was brought on to this series went on to do multiple series, and was brought into the fold of an industry that they had felt for many years like they were outsiders.”

“Sunday Morning” contributor Mark Whitaker with Oprah Winfrey, whose network airs the series “Queen Sugar.”

CBS News

Shaz Bennett said she’s had every job you could ever do: “I’ve bartended. I’ve worked in a fish cannery.” She said the Ava Effect “changed everything and, like, brought me a whole career that I didn’t have before.”

Whitaker asked, “And you feel confident that that will continue?”

“I’m hopeful!” Bennett laughed.

DeMane Davis, one of the directors of “Queen Sugar.” Over its seven seasons, the OWN TV series has been directed exclusively by women.

CBS News

As for DuVernay, she’s putting her money where her motivation is: “When I had a big, nice payday from directing a film, I decided to take that money and put it down on something that could really build a future for myself.” She developed Array, a complex of workplaces in Los Angeles designed to increase diversity in the production and distribution of films.

Whitaker asked, “Does anything else quite like this exist in this town?”

“Here we incubate education,” DuVernay said. “We have our database, so that the overall industry can find crew members of color and women crew members. We release films by independent filmmakers of color and women filmmakers. There are people that do bits and pieces of it all, but I don’t know of any one place.”

“One-stop shopping for your work?”

“You can buy a lot of things here!”

The last episode of “Queen Sugar” airs this month. It might be that its major legacy is throwing down a challenge.

Bennett said, “Ninety-four years of television, there’s just been one show that was all directed by women. So, yeah, we got to make 94 more!”

“Get to work!” laughed Davis.

WEB EXTRA VIDEO: Ava DuVernay on building her career as a director

Ava DuVernay on building her career as a director

01:14

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Story produced by Alan Golds. Editor: Emanuele Secci.

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November 13, 2022
“Queen Sugar”: A TV landmark for women directors

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“Queen Sugar”: A TV landmark for women directors – CBS News

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Ava DuVernay, the creator of “Queen Sugar,” laid down a pioneering directive for her TV series: To hire only female directors, in an industry where women, particularly women of color, have had few inroads. “Sunday Morning” contributor Mark Whitaker talks with DuVernay, Oprah Winfrey (whose OWN channel broadcasts the series), and with several of the show’s directors, many of whose dreams are now, finally, becoming reality.

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November 13, 2022