Interviews: SFFILM Awards recipients Glenn Close, Aaron Sorkin, Chloé Zhao and the cast of ‘One Night in Miami…’ [VIDEO]

The 2020 SFFILM Awards were held on Wednesday to honor Glenn Close, Aaron Sorkin, Chloé Zhao and the cast of One Night in Miami…Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge and Leslie Odom Jr.

Glenn Close received the SFFILM Award for Acting, presented by her Hillbilly Elegy co-star Amy Adams. Aaron Sorkin received the Kanbar Award for Storytelling, presented by Sacha Baron Cohen from The Trial of the Chicago 7. Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) received the Irving M. Levin Award for Film Direction, presented by David Strathairn. The cast of Amazon Studios’ One Night in Miami… – Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge and Leslie Odom Jr. – received the SFFILM special award for outstanding ensemble performance, which was presented by their film’s director, Academy Award winning actress Regina King.

In a press junket before receiving their awards, I chatted with each recipient (save for Eli Goree and Leslie Odom Jr due to time) about their films, their processes and evolving career choices.

Glenn Close – SFFILM Award for Acting

Seven-time Academy Award-nominated actress Glenn Close is an acclaimed performer whose work has graced stage, screen, and television. For 2018’s The Wife, Close won Golden Globe, SAG, Independent Spirit, and Critics Choice Awards as Best Actress, as well as nominations from BAFTA, the Gotham Awards, and the London Film Critics, along with that seventh Oscar nomination. Close currently stars alongside Amy Adams in Hillbilly Elegy, directed by Ron Howard. Close made her feature film debut in George Roy Hill’s The World According to Garp, earning her awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review as well as her first Academy Award nomination. She was subsequently Oscar-nominated for The Big Chill, The Natural, Fatal Attraction, Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons, and Albert Nobbs, on which she was also co-screenwriter, producer, and lyricist of the film’s title song. Her additional film credits include Richard Marquand’s Jagged Edge, Barbet Schroeder’s Reversal of Fortune, Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, István Szabó’s Meeting Venus, Ron Howard’s The Paper, Stephen Herek’s 101 Dalmatians, Kevin Lima’s 102 Dalmatians, Wolfgang Petersen’s Air Force One , Robert Altman’s Cookie’s Fortune, Rose Troche’s The Safety of Objects, Merchant Ivory’s Le Divorce, Chris Terrio’s Heights, and four films with Rodrigo García: Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, Nine Lives, Albert Nobbs, and Four Good Days. For her work in television, as both an actress and producer, Close has 14 Emmy nominations and three wins. For her work on stage, Close has won three Tony Awards.

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Aaron Sorkin – SFFILM Kanbar Award for Storytelling

Academy Award-winning writer and renowned playwright Aaron Sorkin broke into film with his 1993 adaptation of A FEW GOOD MEN, which was nominated for four Academy Awards including “Best Picture.” Additionally, he won an Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay, amongst other accolades, for THE SOCIAL NETWORK and also received Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for his work on MONEYBALL (alongside Steve Zaillian) and for MOLLY’S GAME, his directorial debut.

Acclaimed across mediums, Sorkin created and produced NBC’s THE WEST WING, which won 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, including four consecutive “Outstanding Drama Series” victories. Additional credits include the films MALICE, THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT, CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR, and STEVE JOBS; television shows SPORTS NIGHT, STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP, and THE NEWSROOM; and the Broadway stage adaptation of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, now the highest grossing American play in Broadway history.

His newest film The TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Chloé Zhao – SFFILM Irving M. Levin Award for Film Direction

Chloé was born on March 31st, 1982 in Beijing, China. She was raised there and also in Brighton, England. After moving to the US, she studied Politics at Mt Holyoke College and Film Production at NYU. As a writer, director and producer, her first feature SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and her second feature THE RIDER premiered at Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight in 2017 and won the Art Cinema Awards. Her two upcoming features are NOMADLAND, a road movie set in the American West and Marvel Studios’ ETERNALS. Chloé lives in California and adores her two dogs and three chickens.

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Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, and Leslie Odom, Jr – SFFILM Special Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance – One Night in Miami…

Kingsley Ben-Adir is a British-Afro Caribbean actor who, after over a decade of impressive work on stage, film and television, is becoming one of the most sought-after talents and appears in a number of highly anticipated projects. Ben-Adir can next be seen playing the role of Barack Obama in Billy Ray’s The Comey Rule, starring Jeff Daniels as James Comey and Brendan Gleeson as Donald Trump. Upcoming, Ben-Adir stars opposite Sarah Snook in Soulmates, an episodic anthology series premiering on October 5 for AMC and created by Will Bridges and Brett Goldstein. Ben-Adir can also be seen in the Hulu comedy-drama series High Fidelity opposite Zoe Kravitz as well as the HBO Max anthology rom-com series Love Life, alongside Anna Kendrick and produced by Paul Feig. Previously, he starred in the second season of the hugely popular Netflix series The OA, opposite Brit Marling and Jason Isaacs. Additionally, Ben-Adir was a series regular during seasons four, five, six and returned in season eight on ITV’s drama Vera, alongside Brenda Blethyn. He can also be seen playing the role of Colonel Ben Younger, in the latest season of the BBC/Netflix’s critically acclaimed series Peaky Blinders, starring alongside Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, and Helen McCrory.

Eli Goree will next be seen starring as Cassius Clay in One Night in Miami, Regina King’s highly anticipated directorial debut from Amazon Studios. Goree is a truly versatile performer who’s worked across television and film. He was most recently seen starring in USA’s Pearson, which was a series spin-off of the well-known and well-loved series Suits. Goree was also seen reprising his role as Mad Dog in Season 4 of CW’s Riverdale. His additional television roles include HBO’s Ballers, CW’s The 100, Global TV’s Da Kink in My Hair, CW’s Supernatural, CW’s Emily Owens, M.D., CTV’s Motive, Netflix’s GLOW, and Freeform’s Dead of Summer. On the film side, Goree starred in Stephen Hopkin’s Race, for which he received a Leo Award for “Best Supporting Performance by a Male in a Motion Picture.” Born and raised in Halifax, Canada, Goree currently resides in Los Angeles.

Aldis Hodge recently wrapped production on Leverage 2.0, which previously aired on TNT, and will return to work this fall on his new Showtime series City on a Hill opposite Kevin Bacon, produced by Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Tom Fontana and directed by Michael Cuesta. Hodge will star opposite Dwayne Johnson in New Line’s Black Adam, with production set to begin in early 2021. Additional film credits include Universal’s The Invisible Man opposite Elisabeth Moss, and Chinonye Chukwu’s independent feature Clemency, for which Hodge won a Virtuoso Award at the 2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Hodge also appeared in the Academy Award-nominated Twentieth Century Fox feature Hidden Figures, for which the cast received an ensemble award at the 2017 SAG Awards. Hodge is perhaps most well-known for his role as MC Ren in Universal Pictures’ Straight Outta Compton. The film gained critical acclaim and was nominated for various awards including a 2016 Screen Actors Guild Award in the category of Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, a 2016 Producers Guild Award, as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Other work includes the Disney feature Magic Camp, the fourth season of the hit Netflix series Black Mirror and as the lead in a new Netflix anthology Medal of Honor and the series Underground for WGN America, opposite Jurnee Smollett-Bell and Christopher Meloni.

Leslie Odom, Jr. is a Tony and Grammy Award-winning and Emmy nominated performer — with a multifaceted career that spans all performance genres: Broadway, television, film, and music. Best known for his breakout role as Aaron Burr in the smash hit Broadway musical Hamilton, Odom will next be seen on the big screen in the film adaptation of the Olivier Award-nominated play One Night in Miami directed by Regina King, where he portrays and performs the songs of legendary singer Sam Cooke. For the film, King also enlisted Odom to write and perform the original song, “Speak Now.” Most recently, he released his second holiday album, titled The Christmas Album, which follows the release of Mr, his third album and first of all-original material. Odom can currently be heard voicing the character of Owen Tillerman in the Apple TV+ animated musical-comedy series Central Park, for which he received an Emmy nomination, as well as in the recently released filmed performance of the original Broadway production of Hamilton on Disney+. His other upcoming projects include the feature film Music written and directed by singer-songwriter Sia; Needle in a Timestack, written and directed by John Ridley; and next spring he will star in The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to David Chase’s Award-winning HBO series The Sopranos. Additional film and television credits include the limited series Love in the Time of Corona, which he co-starred opposite Nicolette Robinson and produced, Harriet, Murder on the Orient Express, Only, Red Tails and Smash.