First trailer for Barry Jenkins’ ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ commemorates James Baldwin’s birthday

The long-awaited trailer to Barry Jenkins’ follow-up to his Oscar-winning Moonlight is here.

Jenkins has long been one of James Baldwin’s most ardent fans and debuts his adaptation of Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk on the celebrated author’s birthday, with Baldwin’s haunting words deeply embedded. “There are days when you wonder, what your role is in this country and what your future is in it. This is one of them.”

If Beale Street Could Talk tells the story of Clementine “Tish” Rivers (Kiki Layne), a young woman growing up in Harlem in the early 1970s as she searches for evidence to exonerate her boyfriend Alonzo “Fonny” Hunt (Stephan James) from false rape charges all while pregnant with his child. It co-stars Teyonah Parris, Regina King, Brian Tyree Henry, Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Pedro Pascal, Ed Skrein and Dave Franco.

If Beale Street Could Talk reteams Jenkins with his Oscar-nominated Moonlight crew including cinematographer James Laxton, editors Joi McMillon and Nat Sanders and composer Nichols Britell. It hits theaters on November 30, 2018 from Annapurna Pictures and will world premiere at the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival.

For me, August 2nd has always been a day to pay tribute, so… a teaser of what's to come. Happy Birthday, Jimmy 🙏🏿🙌🏿♥️ pic.twitter.com/1Miu4jfWvg

— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) August 2, 2018

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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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