Big screen, little screen review: The Critics Choice Association Awards
I finally got the chance to view The Critics Choice Association Annual Awards recently celebrating Black cinema and television and oh, what a splendour it was! The event was held at the Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel. The awards were hosted by Emmy winner Niecy Nash. Those honoured included Jennifer Hudson from Respect depicting the queen of soul, Aretha Franklyn, (MGM/United Artists Releasing), and two Netflix productions – Ruth Negga Passing and the crew from Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall.
Emmy-winning actress, Taraji P. Henson handed actress Halle Berry the career achievement award. The first flick I saw with Berry was Boomerang where she performed alongside Eddie Murphy, Eartha Kitt, Grace Jones (who hails from Jamaica), Robin Givens, David Allan Grier, Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence. However, on this award night, Madam Berry, during her response to the honour, was all tears. Her speech started with her relating to her genesis on the silver screen and a career that spanned some 30 years. In the summing up of her career Berry pointed out that there were no awards shows that affirmed or valued her abilities. Berry added that she was regularly unaccompanied to events put on by the movie industry. She further said that she was, generally, one of the few Black individuals in a room at many motion picture events, probing to unearth her significance, probing to find her importance.
It’s more than two decades since Berry won the Academy Award for best actress for Monster’s Ball (2001). About the oft-asked question that she’s still the only Black female actress to date to have won the Oscar, Berry remarked that it’s a despairing feeling that no one stands next to her, currently, in copping the award. However, in her appeal to her fellow actors, especially the female performers attending the event, Berry said that they ought not to crave awards as awards do not characterize their worth or their abilities. She also appealed for an end to longing for an Academy Award as the standard by which to gauge their significance and accomplishments.
David R. Muhammad is a former morning host on Visions Television and a former member of the Palace Amusement Media Movie Review Committee. He is currently the Student Protocol Officer of the Nation of Islam’ study group – Jamaica.
