“The Harder They Fall” and “King Richard” topped the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) Awards with four wins apiece. “The Harder They Fall” took honors for Best Picture, Ensemble, Director (Jeymes Samuel) and Music (Samuel, Kid Cudi, Jay-Z). "King Richard" won for Best Actor (Will Smith), Supporting Actress (Aunjanue Ellis), Breakout Actor (Saniyya Sidney) and Emerging Director (Reinaldo Marcus Green).
Other winners included Best Actress Jennifer Hudson (“Respect”), Best Supporting Actor Corey Hawkins (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”), Best Screenplay (“Don’t Look Up” written by Adam McKay), “Who We Are” for Best Independent Feature and “Summer of Soul” for Best Documentary. Winners will be celebrated at the 13th Annual AAFCA Awards on March 2nd at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles with a limited capacity audience and other health and safety protocols in place.
“It’s been a fantastic year for film,” said AAFCA president and co-founder Gil Robertson. “Just having passed the two-year mark of a global pandemic, great entertainment means more to all of us than ever before. This year’s AAFCA winners not only entertained us, but educated and inspired us and we’re looking forward to celebrating them at the AAFCA Awards.”
WINNERS | 13TH ANNUAL AAFCA AWARDS
Best Picture: “The Harder They Fall”
Best Director: Jeymes Samuel (“The Harder They Fall”)
Best Screenplay: “Don’t Look Up” (Adam McKay)
Best Actor: Will Smith (“King Richard”)
Best Actress: Jennifer Hudson (“Respect”)
Best Supporting Actor: Corey Hawkins (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”)
Best Supporting Actress: Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”)
Breakout Actor: Saniyya Sidney (“King Richard”)
Best Ensemble: “The Harder They Fall”
Emerging Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green (“King Richard”)
Best Music: “The Harder They Fall” (Jeymes Samuel, Kid Cudi, Jay-Z)
Best Independent Feature: “Who We Are”
Best Documentary: “Summer of Soul”
Winners are voted on by AAFCA’s 90+ members. Several special achievement awards will be announced in the coming weeks including the Cinema Vanguard Award, the ICON Award, AAFCA’s Stanley & Karen Kramer Award for Social Justice, the Building Change Award and the Innovator Award.
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More