In celebration of Black History Month, Variety assembled a star-studded list of Black women awards season contenders for conversations about their craft, careers and experiences working in…
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
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Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
In celebration of Black History Month, Variety assembled a star-studded list of Black women awards season contenders for conversations about their craft, careers and experiences working in various (or at times multiple) sectors of the entertainment industry, both in front of and behind the camera.
The group is made up of Stacey Abrams (“All In: The Fight for Democracy”), Radha Blank (“The Forty-Year-Old Version”), Laverne Cox (“Disclosure,” “Promising Young Woman”), Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”), Dominique Fishback (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Francine Jamison-Tanchuck (“One Night in Miami”), Charlese Antoinette Jones (“Judas and the Black Messiah”), Jones (“On the Rocks”), Channing Godfrey Peoples (“Miss Juneteenth”) and Kerry Washington (“The Fight,” “The Prom”).
“What’s so beautiful about the movies this year is the representation of Black people on screen and Black women on screen, it’s really diverse,” actor, writer and director Rashida Jones said, surveying this year’s crop of awards season contenders. “‘Judas and the Black Messiah,’ next to ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version,’ next to ‘On the Rocks,’ next to ‘Ma Rainey,’ that’s a beautiful spread. Nobody can decide what it looks like to be a Black woman, because they’re all very different things.”
In conversation, Washington and Cox discuss what it means to have crossed over from actors to producers, creating their own content with the purpose of manufacturing more opportunities for others, while filmmakers Peoples and Blank share their journeys to getting their feature directorial debuts made the way they’d always imagined. Actors Jones and Fishback share how they learned to harness the power of their voices onstage and their words on the page, while costume designers Jamison-Tanchuck and Jones detail how they’ve defied expectations using their craftsmanship.
Watch the video above to learn more about the contenders and their journeys.