AAFCA Plans for Revitalized In-Person Awards Ceremony

variety.com:

Angelique Jackson For the first time in two years, the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) will present their annual award ceremony honoring the best in film as an in-person event, after pivoting to a virtual production amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 13th AAFCA Awards will be held on March 2 at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, with a limited capacity audience and other health and safety protocols in place.  “It’s exciting and it’s a little nerve-wracking because, with COVID, it’s a day-to-day thing in terms of the transmission rates and the number of diagnoses,” AAFCA president and co-founder Gil Robertson tells Variety. “But we’re hopeful, prayerful and confident that the numbers will remain at an acceptable level to allow us to present a very nice and classy show.”   Ultimately, it’s a return to form for the organization, established in 2003 with the mission to amplify Black voices in film criticism and arts and entertainment journalism from across the African Diaspora.

The atmosphere at the gala is typically familial, as its nearly 100-person membership of print, TV, radio and online critics and journalists mix and mingle with the A-list talent that it honors.  “People walk away from the AAFCA awards feeling comforted.

They feel acknowledged; they feel seen,” Robertson says, before looking back on the Jan. 2020 ceremony. “[I remember] feeling joyful that we were able to celebrate a lot of performances and projects that would have otherwise gone unrecognized.” That affair saluted Jordan Peele’s “Us” as the best film, with acting honors awarded to “Dolemite is My Name” stars Eddie Murphy and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Lupita Nyong’o (“Us”) and Jamie Foxx (“Just Mercy”).