Tag Archives: Cicely Tyson

Mariah Carey to Receive Innovator Award from African American Film Critics Association

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Mariah Carey is being recognized for her storytelling…

The African American Film Critics Association has announced that the 51-year-old half-Venezuelan American singer/actress will receive an AAFCA Special Achievement Award at the 12th annual AAFCA Awards, taking place April 7.

 

Carey will be honored with the Innovator Award.

Other honorees include Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom director George C. Wolfe, streaming giant Netflix, and voter suppression documentary, All In: The Fight for Democracy.

Wolfe, whose remarkable career in theatre spans over 40 years, is the 2021 AAFCA Special Achievement Salute To Excellence honoree.

“Even with the challenges of the pandemic, we look forward to providing audiences with a memorable virtual experience. As with every year, this year’s honorees represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields,” said AAFCA CEO and President Gil Robertson. “Mariah Carey is often recognized as a global icon for her musical gifts, but rarely is she celebrated for the visual storytelling in her music videos and specials. As an artist who is all-hands-on-deck in not just crafting her songs, but also in curating and creating the imagery surrounding them, Carey is especially deserving of the 2021 AAFCA Special Achievement Innovator Award.”

Netflix is “the Cinema Vanguard recipient for fostering a global tribe rooted in bringing all people together across various languages and continents through the power of cinema,” said Robertson.

All In: The Fight for Democracy, directed by Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus, who also co-produced with political titan Stacey Abrams, has been selected for this year’s Stanley Kramer Award.

Said Robertson, “In addition, we, at AAFCA, are doubly pleased that Mrs. Karen Kramer and her team chose to present this year’s AAFCA Stanley Kramer Award for Social Justice to All In: The Fight For Democracy highlighting Stacey Abrams’ personal mission to combat voter suppression.”

Past recipients of the AAFCA Special Achievement Awards include Channing Dungey, Quincy Jones, Jason Blum, Edward James Olmos, George Lucas, Sidney Poitier, Jon Chu, and Cicely Tyson.Mariah Carey

Joan Baez Among This Year’s Recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors

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Joan Baez is set to receive a special honor in Our Nation’s Capital.

The 80-year-old half-Mexican American contemporary folk singer has been selected to receive the 43rd Kennedy Center Honors alongside Garth Brooks, violinist Midori, choreographer Debbie Allen and the ageless Dick Van Dyke.

Joan Baez

“It has been my life’s joy to make art,” said Baez in a statement. It’s also been my life’s joy to make, as the late Congressman John Lewis called it, ‘good trouble.’ What luck to have been born with the ability to do both; each one giving strength and credibility to the other.”

Traditionally held in December, the 2020 edition of the Kennedy Center Honors was postponed to May 2021 due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Live events and filming are planned for the week of May 17-22. The Honors Gala will be recorded for broadcast on CBS as a two-hour primetime special that will air on June 6 at 9:00 pm ET/PT.

But the pandemic will have an impact on how the event is staged, with live-filmed tributes and virtual moments to take the place of the traditional event in a packed Kennedy Center Opera House.

“The center’s entire campus will come alive with small, in-person events and re-envisioned virtual tributes. Featuring multiple events for physically-distant audiences in locations across the Kennedy Center’s campus…Programs for each event will encompass both performances and speaking tributes for the honorees,” according to a statement. “Virtual events will also be held throughout the week beginning May 17, and the viability of additional in-person events will be considered as COVID-19 safety protocols evolve over the upcoming months…An honoree medallion ceremony for the honorees and a limited audience will be hosted by the Kennedy Center during [the week of] May 17–22.”

Joan Baez

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to attend the Honors Gala, as presidents traditionally have done (barring a national crisis). Donald Trump was the first president to decline the invitation every year of his term.

This is the first time in five years that a majority of the honorees have been women. Carole King, Rita Moreno and Cicely Tyson were three of the five honorees in 2015.

“The Kennedy Center Honors serves as a moment to celebrate the remarkable artists who have spent their lives elevating the cultural history of our nation and world,” said David M. Rubenstein, Kennedy Center Chairman.

Here’s a look at each of this year’s honorees:

Joan Baez: The folk legend had three top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 in the 1960s, including Farewell, Angelina. Her classic version of Robbie Robertson’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. Baez was just 21 when she made the cover of Time in November 1962. Baez has one of the longest spans of Grammy nominations in history, from 1962 to 2018. She has yet to win a Grammy in competition (despite nine nods), but she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy in 2007.

Garth Brooks: The country star, 58, is one of the best-selling recording artists in history. The RIAA lists him second only to The Beatles, with 157 million albums sold in the U.S. (compared to 183 million for the Fab Four). He has had nine No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, including Ropin’ the Wind, which topped the chart for 18 weeks, still the record for a country album. Brooks has amassed 14 CMA Awards, including a record seven awards for entertainer of the year. He was artist of the decade for the 1990s at the ACM Awards. He has won two Grammys. He received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song last year. He made the cover of Time in 1992 in a story headlined “Country’s Big Boom.”

Midori: The Japanese-born American violinist, 49, was just 19 when she received her first (and to date only) Grammy nomination for best classical performance, instrumental soloist (without orchestra) for the album Paganini: 24 Caprices For Solo Violin Op. 1. She made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 11 as a surprise guest soloist at the New Year’s Eve Gala in 1982. 

Dick Van Dyke: The actor, 95, won three Emmys for The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66), which is widely regarded as the granddaddy of smart, sophisticated sitcoms. He also won an Emmy in 1977 for Van Dyke & Company, which took outstanding variety or music series. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1995. He won a Tony in 1961 for Bye, Bye Birdie (in which he introduced the jaunty “Put on a Happy Face”) and a Grammy for 1964’s Mary Poppins (in which he took the lead in singing the Oscar-winning “Chim Chim Cher-ee”).

Debbie Allen: The actress, dancer, choreographer, singer-songwriter, director and producer, 70, has won three Emmys for choreography: two for Fame and one for Motown 30: What’s Goin’ On. She also received two Tony nods for acting in revivals of West Side Story (1980) and Sweet Charity (1986). She is a former member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Moreno Among the Recipients of This Year’s Kennedy Center Honors

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Rita Moreno continues to rack up the honors…

The 83-year-old Puerto Rican actress, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award at last year’s SAG Awards, has been announced as one of recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors.

Rita Moreno

Each year, the Kennedy Center recognizes a select group for their lifetime contributions to American culture through the performing arts with the primary criterion in the selection process being excellence. Honorees are chosen by the center’s board of trustees.

Moreno, a Grammy, Oscar, Golden Globe and Tony Award winner, will be honored along side Star Wars patriarch George Lucas, actress Cicely Tyson, songwriter Carole King, conductor Seiji Ozawa and the Eagles.

Moreno, who recently guest-starred on the CW’s Jane the Virgin, has previously received the Library of Congress Living Legends Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a National Medal of Arts and the Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

The event, a fundraiser for the Washington, D.C. arts center, will take place on December 6. CBS will broadcast the star-studded event on December 29.

Bonham Carter Earns Critics’ Choice Television Award Nod for “Burton and Taylor”

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Helena Bonham Carter’s on-screen transformation as a Hollywood legend is still earning recognition…

The 47-year-old part-Spanish actress, who earned a British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ TV Awards nomination last month, has been nominated for a Critics’ Choice Television Award from the Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

Helena Bonham Carter in Burton and Taylor

Bonham Carter received the nod in the Best Actress in a Movie or Mini-Series category for her portrayal of the late Elizabeth Taylor in the BBC biopic Burton and Taylor.

She’ll face off against Return to Zero’s Minnie Driver, A Day Late and a Dollar Short’s Whoopi Goldberg, Bonnie & Clyde’s Holliday Grainger, American Horror Story: Coven’s Jessica Lange and The Trip to Bountiful’s Cicely Tyson.

Meanwhile, Louis C.K. has been nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance in his FX series Louie.

The 46-year-old Mexican American actor, who just earned a similar nod from the Television Critics Association, will compete against The Mindy Project’s Chris Messina, Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch, The Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons, Parks and Recreation’s Adam Scott and The Crazy Ones’ Robin Williams.

Programs and performances for this round of Critics Choice Television Awards are eligible if they were telecast between June 1, 2013 and May 31, 2014. But submissions still are being accepted for The Most Exciting New Series category, and any series premiering after May 1, 2014 is eligible –  including any announced summer, fall or winter premieres.

That category will be announced on June 9 — 10 days before CW broadcasts the Critics Choice Television Awards on June 19,  at 8:00 pm ET, hosted by Cedric the Entertainer.

The awards show will be tape-delayed for an 8:00 pm PT start time.

Here’s a look at the nominees:

BEST COMEDY SERIES

The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Broad City (Comedy Central)
Louie (FX)
Orange Is the New Black (Netflix)
Silicon Valley (HBO)
Veep (HBO)

BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Louis CK, Louie (FX)
Chris Messina, The Mindy Project (FOX)
Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley (HBO)
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Robin Williams, The Crazy Ones (CBS)

BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Ilana Glazer, Broad City (Comedy Central)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep (HBO)
Wendi McLendon-Covey, The Goldbergs (ABC)
Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central)
Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Emmy Rossum, Shameless (Showtime)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES
Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine (FOX)
Keith David, Enlisted (FOX)
Tony Hale, Veep (HBO)
Albert Tsai, Trophy Wife (ABC)
Christopher Evan Welch, Silicon Valley (HBO)
Jeremy Allen White, Shameless (Showtime)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES
Mayim Bialik, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Laverne Cox, Orange Is the New Black (Netflix)
Kaley Cuoco, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Allison Janney, Mom (CBS)
Kate Mulgrew, Orange Is the New Black (Netflix)
Merritt Wever, Nurse Jackie (Showtime)

BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A COMEDY SERIES
Uzo Aduba, Orange Is the New Black (Netflix)
Sarah Baker, Louie (FX)
James Earl Jones, The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
Mimi Kennedy, Mom (CBS)
Andrew Rannells, Girls (HBO)
Lauren Weedman, Looking (HBO)

BEST DRAMA SERIES
The Americans (FX)
Breaking Bad (AMC)
Game of Thrones (HBO)
The Good Wife (CBS)
Masters of Sex (Showtime)
True Detective (HBO)

BEST ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Hugh Dancy, Hannibal (NBC)
Freddie Highmore, Bates Motel (A&E)
Matthew McConaughey, True Detective (HBO)
Matthew Rhys, The Americans (FX)
Michael Sheen, Masters of Sex (Showtime)

BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
      
Lizzy Caplan, Masters of Sex (Showtime)
Vera Farmiga, Bates Motel (A&E)
Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife (CBS)
Tatiana Maslany, Orphan Black (BBC America)
Keri Russell, The Americans (FX)
Robin Wright, House of Cards (Netflix)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES
Josh Charles, The Good Wife (CBS)
Walton Goggins, Justified (FX)
Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Peter Sarsgaard, The Killing (AMC)
Jon Voight, Ray Donovan (Showtime)
Jeffrey Wright, Boardwalk Empire (HBO)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES
Christine Baranski, The Good Wife (CBS)
Anna Gunn, Breaking Bad (AMC)
Annet Mahendru, The Americans (FX)
Melissa McBride, The Walking Dead (AMC)
Maggie Siff, Sons of Anarchy (FX)
Bellamy Young, Scandal (ABC)

BEST GUEST PERFORMER IN A DRAMA SERIES
Beau Bridges, Masters of Sex (Showtime)
Walton Goggins, Sons of Anarchy (FX)
Allison Janney, Masters of Sex (Showtime)
Joe Morton, Scandal (ABC)
Carrie Preston, The Good Wife (CBS)
Diana Rigg, Game of Thrones (HBO)

BEST MOVIE
An Adventure in Space and Time (BBC America)
Burton and Taylor (BBC America)
Killing Kennedy (National Geographic Channel)
The Normal Heart (HBO)
Sherlock: His Last Vow (PBS)
The Trip to Bountiful (Lifetime)

BEST MINI-SERIES      
American Horror Story: Coven (FX)
Bonnie & Clyde (A&E/History/Lifetime)
Dancing on the Edge (Starz)
Fargo (FX)
The Hollow Crown (PBS)
Luther (BBC America)

BEST ACTOR IN A MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES

David Bradley, An Adventure in Space and Time (BBC America)
Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock: His Last Vow (PBS)
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Dancing on the Edge (Starz)
Martin Freeman, Fargo (FX)
Mark Ruffalo, The Normal Heart (HBO)
Billy Bob Thornton, Fargo (FX)

BEST ACTRESS IN A MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES
Helena Bonham Carter, Burton and Taylor (BBC America)
Minnie Driver, Return to Zero (Lifetime)
Whoopi Goldberg, A Day Late and a Dollar Short (Lifetime)
Holliday Grainger, Bonnie & Clyde (A&E/History/Lifetime)
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven (FX)
Cicely Tyson, The Trip to Bountiful (Lifetime)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES
Matt Bomer, The Normal Heart (HBO)
Warren Brown, Luther (BBC America)
Martin Freeman, Sherlock: His Last Vow (PBS)
Colin Hanks, Fargo (FX)
Joe Mantello, The Normal Heart (HBO)
Blair Underwood, The Trip to Bountiful (Lifetime)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MOVIE OR MINI-SERIES
Amanda Abbington, Sherlock: His Last Vow (PBS)
Kathy Bates, American Horror Story: Coven (FX)
Ellen Burstyn, Flowers in the Attic (Lifetime)
Jessica Raine, An Adventure in Space and Time (BBC America)
Julia Roberts, The Normal Heart (HBO)
Allison Tolman, Fargo (FX)

BEST REALITY SERIES       
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (FOX/National Geographic Channel)
Deadliest Catch (Discovery)
Duck Dynasty (A&E)
Mythbusters (Discovery)
Top Gear (BBC America)
Undercover Boss (CBS)

BEST REALITY SERIES – COMPETITION
The Amazing Race (CBS)
Project Runway (Lifetime)
Shark Tank (ABC)
Survivor (CBS)
Top Chef (Bravo)
The Voice (NBC)

BEST REALITY HOST
Tom Bergeron, Dancing With the Stars (ABC)
Carson Daly, The Voice (NBC)
Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance (FOX)
Gordon Ramsay, MasterChef (FOX)
RuPaul, RuPaul’s Drag Race (Logo)
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (FOX/National Geographic Channel)

BEST TALK SHOW
Jimmy Kimmel Live! (ABC)
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (NBC)
The Ellen DeGeneres Show (Time Telepictures)
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)
The Colbert Report (Comedy Central)
Conan (TBS)

BEST ANIMATED SERIES
Archer (FX)
Bob’s Burgers (FOX)
The Simpsons (FOX)
Family Guy (FOX)
Phineas and Ferb (Disney XD)
Adventure Time (Cartoon Network)