‘Judas and the Black Messiah,’ Regina King top African American Film Critics (AAFCA) winners

The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) has chosen Judas and the Black Messiah as the best film of 2020, also awarding Daniel Kaluuya and Dominique Fishback with their supporting prizes. Shaka King was named Breakout Director.

Regina King’s One Night in Miami also scored big, with a director win for King, screenplay for Kemp Powers and the ensemble award. Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) and Andra Day (The United States vs. Billie Holiday) took the lead acting awards.

Streamer Netflix was given the group’s Cinema Vanguard Award for its support of Black voices. The Salute to Excellence Award was presented to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom director George C. Wolfe.

here is the full list of winners from the African American Film Critics Association.

Best Picture: Judas and the Black Messiah

Best Director: Regina King, One Night In Miami

Best Actor: Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Best Actress: Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Best Supporting Actor: Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
Best Supporting Actress: Dominique Fishback, Judas and the Black Messiah

Best Screenplay: Kemp Powers, One Night in Miami

Best Ensemble: One Night in Miami

Best Foreign Film: Night of the Kings
Best Documentary: All In: The Fight for Democracy
Best Animation: Soul
Best Short Film: Two Distant Strangers

Breakout Performance: Radha Blank, The Forty-Year-Old-Version
Breakout Director: Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah

Top 10 Films:

Judas and the Black Messiah
One Night in Miami
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Nomadland
Night of the Kings
American Skin
Da 5 Bloods
Minari
Miss Juneteenth
The United States vs. Billie Holiday

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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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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