Michaela Coel, Radha Blank, Gina Prince-Bythewood topline women-ruled wins at night two of the 52nd NAACP Image Awards

It was truly a dominating night for women at the 52nd NAACP Image Awards second evening of awards, rewarding writers and directors of television series’ and films with seven of the 13 competitive awards being won by women.

I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel won Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for the episode “Ego Death” while Anya Adams won directing for her black-ish episode “Hair Day.” For motion picture writing the award went to Radha Blank for her debut film The Forty-Year Old Version.

“A writer is only as good as those reading and questioning their work,” Coel said in her virtual acceptance speech. “It was important for me to receive opinions of Black people, of queer people whilst I developed these scripts, and they provided me with that.

“I dedicate this award to my mother Carol Blank, who was my first audience and the biggest champion of my ideas,” Blank said, accepting her honor. “Through her I learned that in times like these where people still struggle for equality, a storyteller has the ability to inspire hope and reflect our humanity with our most prized possession, our pen.”

Gina Prince-Bythewood was named Best Director for the action blockbuster The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron and Kiki Layne. This was Prince-Bythewood’s third NACCP win. She had previously won for directing The Secret Life of Bees in 2009 and for her writing on Shots Fired in 2018.

Literary awards were handed out yesterday, going to President Barack Obama, Elijah Cummings and more.

The 52nd NAACP Image Awards will air live on BET on Saturday, March 27th, 2021 at 8 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. CT. The ceremony will be simulcast across ViacomCBS Networks including CBS, BET Her, VH1, MTV, MTV2, and LOGO.

Here is the full list of winners from night two of the 52nd NAACP Awards.

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series  
Michaela Coel – I May Destroy You – Ep. 112 “Ego Death”

Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series    
Attica Locke – Little Fires Everywhere – Ep. 104 “The Spider Web”

Outstanding Writing in a Television Movie or Special  
Geri Cole – The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special

Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture
Radha Blank – The Forty-Year-Old Version

Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series  
Anya Adams – black-ish – Ep. 611 “Hair Day”

Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series    
Hanelle Culpepper – Star Trek: Picard – Ep. 101 “Remembrance”

Outstanding Directing in a Television Movie or Special 
Eugene Ashe – Sylvie’s Love

Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture
Gina Prince-Bythewood – The Old Guard

Outstanding Short Form Series – Comedy or Drama
#FreeRayshawn

Outstanding Performance in a Short Form 
Laurence Fishburne – #FreeRayshawn

Outstanding Short Form Series – Reality/Nonfiction  
Between The Scenes – The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

Outstanding Short-Film (Live Action)
Black Boy Joy

Outstanding Short-Film (Animated)
Canvas

Special Award – Spingarn Medal
Misty Copeland

Photos courtesy of HBO/Netflix

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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