The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) today announced music icon Quincy Jones and prolific filmmaker Jason Blum among its 2019 Special Achievement honorees. The awards, celebrating career excellence in and around the cinematic arts, are given out annually by the association which represents the largest body of Black film critics in the world. Along with Jones and Blum, who produced Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman this year, director Aneesh Chaganty, AAFCA Breakthrough Film Award recipient for his film SEARCHING, and early jazz innovator Buddy Bolden, the posthumous recipient of the AAFCA Pioneer Award and subject of Daniel Pritzker long-awaited biopic, BOLDEN, also join the impressive list of previously announced recipients, including Netflix’s Tengo Nagenda and HBO’s Kelly Edwards.
“Quincy Jones is a cultural icon,” AAFCA co-founder Shawn Edwards shared. “For nearly 70 years, he has helped shape pop culture as a music composer and producer as well as a film/TV composer and producer. His creative influence is unparalleled. He has molded the arts, film and music with a force that we may never witness again in our lifetime and given back all along the way.”
AAFCA Co-founder and CEO Gil Robertson shared that “Jason Blum is a visionary creatively and in business. Through Blumhouse, he has rebirthed the horror genre, favoring both horror and specialty films like BlacKkKlansman that inclusively reflect or make us think about the world today. I am thrilled that AAFCA is honoring Jason, the legendary Quincy Jones, jazz pioneer Bolden and the other great creatives, in front of and behind the camera, that continue to make our industry and our world great.”
AAFCA Special Achievement Awards will be distributed over two signature ceremonies. Six awards to honorees, including Buddy Bolden and the film CRAZY RICH ASIANS, will be presented on February 2 at the California Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey. Quincy Jones and Jason Blum will be honored at the 10thAnnual AAFCA Awards, alongside AAFCA Best Picture winner BLACK PANTHER and more, on February 6 at the Taglyan Complex in the heart of Hollywood.
The AAFCA Awards are sponsored by Nissan, Home Depot and Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment. For more information on these events and AAFCA in general, please visit aafca.com.
About AAFCA
Established in 2003, AAFCA is the premiere body of Black film critics in the world, actively reviewing film and television, with a particular emphasis on entertainment that includes the Black experience and storytellers from the African Diaspora. The organization’s primary mission is to cultivate understanding, appreciation and advancement of the contributions of African descended talent to cinematic and television culture – from the artistic and technical legends of the past to the still unimagined breakthroughs of future generations. AAFCA members are a geographically diverse cross-section of journalists, covering all genres of the cinematic arts, while representing multiple mediums – including print, TV, radio broadcast and online. Collectively, they reach a worldwide audience in excess of 100 million. As a non-profit organization, AAFCA is committed to numerous educational and philanthropic efforts, particularly those that foster and celebrate diversity and inclusion. For more information on AAFCA and its programs visit http://AAFCA.com.
