On Thursday afternoon, February 9, 2023, I received the following email from the Film at Lincoln Center Patrons Desk, announcing that Viola Davis would be the honoree for their 2023 Chaplin Award Gala. This was sixteen days after the world learned that Viola Davis would not be a candidate for a 2023 Oscar in the Best Actress category.
The shock had been palpable. The reaction has been constructive rage: Last week, The Woman King—which had been completely shut-out of Oscar contention—was the most-watched film on Netflix.
I will have more to say about Viola Davis’s superlative performance in The Woman King tomorrow. Today, as Editor-in-Chief of FF2 Media®, I will close our Black History Month coverage with these words from the Film at Lincoln Center folks.
FLC Patron Note – Gala Info!
Dear Patrons,
We are so excited to announce that the honoree for this year’s Chaplin Award Gala is the one and only Viola Davis! We are thrilled to honor such a prolific actress and hope you will join us for what promises to be an incredibly special evening in the wake of Davis’s history-making EGOT [Emmy/Grammy/Oscar/Tony] win. Visit filmlinc.org or email us at patrons@filmlinc.org for ticket information.
Viola Davis is a critically revered, award-winning actress, producer, New York Times best-selling author and one of 18 entertainers to achieve exclusive EGOT status.
Viola Davis is a critically revered, award-winning actress, producer, New York Times best-selling author and one of 18 entertainers to achieve exclusive EGOT status. She most recently won a Grammy for her audiobook, Finding Me, an Academy Award® (Fences), and an Emmy (How to Get Away with Murder), and she is the first Black actress to win two Tony Awards (Fences and King Hedley II).
In 2021, Davis received an Oscar nomination for her transformative performance as Ma Rainey in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. She also won a SAG award for the role and received a Golden Globe Award nomination and Critic’s Choice Award nomination. This year, Davis received the Chairman’s Award at the Palm Springs Film Awards recognizing her work as an actor and producer for The Woman King. In 2020, the New York Times ranked her ninth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Davis’s next film appearance will be AIR, an upcoming American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Ben Affleck and written by Alex Convery, to be released by Amazon Studios on April 5. Additional credits include How to Get Away with Murder, Widows, Suicide Squad, Ender’s Game, Prisoners, Beautiful Creatures, The Help, Doubt, Get On Up, Blackhat, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Knight and Day, Nights in Rodanthe, Madea Goes to Jail, Law Abiding Citizen, Disturbia, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Never Back Down, Far From Heaven, and many more.
Davis and her husband Julius Tennon founded JuVee Productions, with its focus being to give a voice to the voiceless through strong, impactful, and culturally relevant narratives. The Los Angeles-based and artist-driven company produces film, television, and digital content across all forms of entertainment.
Thank you for all of your support, and all you do for Film at Lincoln Center!
All the best,
The Patron Team
Blair H. ❙ Meredith C. ❙ Amanda B. ❙ Casey V.
Film at Lincoln Center Patrons Desk
70 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023
Posted by Jan Lisa Huttner (2/28/23)—Special for FF2 Media®
LEARN MORE/DO MORE
Follow link for Variety’s coverage of the 2023 Oscar nominations including full list of nominees. The Oscars will be distributed on Sunday evening March 12th.
CREDITS & PERMISSIONS
Featured Photo: Alamy 2DDEE7A.
Caption as follows: “Actress Viola Davis, photographed at Porter at 150 N. Riverside in Chicago, on Sunday October 14, 2018. Davis stars in the movie “Widows” directed by Steve McQueen. Photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo/Chicago Tribune/TNS/ABACAPRESS.COM”
THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY ALAMY.
Used by FF2 Media with permission from Alamy.
Bottom Photo: Scanned from Cover of Viola Davis’s Finding Me AudioBook. Click HERE to watch Viola Davis accept her Grammy for Finding Me on November 15, 2022.
