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RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys” unearths the haunting realities of two boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), as they navigate a brutal reform school, blending visceral storytelling with an experimental approach.

In adapting Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, production designer Nora Mendis explains Ross’ vision came from a conceptual place. She says, “It was more about looking at contemporary artists, photos, content and what the justice system means throughout history.” Mendis adds, “Our conversations were based in a higher space of art, and he would trust us to go and do what we would do.”

Throughout the film, which is now in theaters, Ross uses archival footage to juxtapose Elwood and Turner’s abusive experience at Nickel Academy with the social and technological advances of the ‘60s, like the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race.

He tells the story though, through a first-person point of view. “’Point-of-view’ was a term we dropped.

Nickel Boys is the film of 2024. It’s expansive yet accessible. It’s violent yet pierced with seconds of warmth. It’s an adaptation that expands Colson Whitehead’s novel, a visual experience that hedges on the audience’s openness, on a person’s willingness to see the world in another form. In director RaMell Ross’s own words, “It’s not intimate. It’s close.”

Shot with a first-person perspective, Ross’ first narrative feature––following his Oscar-nominated debut documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening––follows two Black teenagers as they survive the Nickel Academy, an abusive reform school in Florida. Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) provide the eyes for this film, which often feels like a collection of moments in one’s life, from an orange rolling out of reach to the trees swaying above, from a hug from your grandmother to the first glimpse of...

Netflix’s The Piano Lesson scooped up a whopping 14 nominations to lead the way for the 56th NAACP Image Awards announced Tuesday, with Peacock’s limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist topping the TV categories with nine bids. The five luminaries competing for the coveted Entertainer of the Year honor are Cynthia Erivo, Keke Palmer, Kendrick Lamar, Kevin Hart, and sports-talk host Shannon Sharpe.

Based on August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson’s nominations include honors for Outstanding Motion Picture, director (Malcolm Washington) and actors John David Washington, Corey Hawkins, Samuel L. Jackson, and Danielle Deadwyler. In the top movied category, it’s joined by Bad Boys: Ride or Die, Bob Marley: One Love, Wicked, and The Six Triple Eight. Nominated for Best Independent Film are Albany Road, Exhibiting Forgiveness, Rob Peace, Sing Sing, and We Grown Now.

The nominees for Best International Film include El lugar de la otra,...

Back in November, we here at JoBlo received a pretty intriguing invitation. We were invited to Los Angeles to get an early look at Nickel Boys, a film based on the novel by Colson Whitehead. Directed by RaMell Ross, the movie’s gotten a ton of Oscar buzz, both for its director and the movie’s stars, Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. In it, Herisse and Wilson play Elwood and Turner, two young men sentenced to a reformatory in the Jim Crow-era South. Once there, they realize there’s a good chance they won’t live through their respective sentences, with the punishment inflicted on them far outweighing the petty crimes they’re supposed to have committed.

It’s undoubtedly one of the boldest movies of the year, with it shot entirely in a first-person point of view, where the camera literally takes the place of Herisse and...

Cynthia Erivo, Keke Palmer, Kendrick Lamar, Kevin Hart and Shannon Sharpe have been nominated for Entertainer of the Year at the 56th NAACP Image Awards, the NAACP announced on Tuesday.

The NAACP announced nominees in 91 categories in the fields of film, television and streaming, recording, documentary, writing, directing, literary, podcast, stunts and costume design, makeup and hairstyling.

The August Wilson adaptation “The Piano Lesson” led all films with 14 nominations, more than double the total for runner-ups “The Book of Clarence,” “Nickel Boys,” “Exhibiting Forgiveness” and “Bob Marley: One Love,” which received six if you count the nominations for “Clarence” and “Bob Marley” in the music categories.

“Piano Lesson” nominees included director Malcolm Washington, recognized in two categories, as well as cast members John David Washington, Corey Hawkins, Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler and Skylar Aleece Smith.

Malcolm and John David Washington’s father, Denzel Washington, made it a true family...

Netflix’s The Piano Lesson tuned up a leading 14 nominations for the 56th annual NAACP Image Awards, which were revealed this morning. TriStar’s The Book of Clarence is next with six noms, and Peacock’s Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist topped TV programs with nine mentions.

Netflix leads all networks and distributors with 64 nominations. See the full list below.

“Our Stories, Our Culture, Our Excellence” is the theme of the 2025 Image Awards, which span film, TV, music, literature, podcasts, social media and more. Winners will be revealed February 21 at the NAACP Image Awards Creative Honors ceremonies and February 22 at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium. The latter will air on BET and CBS, live in the East starting at 8 p.m. Et and delayed at in the West at 8 p.m. Pt.

Based on August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson scooped noms including Outstanding Motion Picture, Director for Malcolm Washington and multiple actors.

The Nickel Boys breakout star is finding light in the darkest stories.

Acting wasn’t the first career choice for Ethan Herisse, the 24-year-old star of powerful historical drama Nickel Boys. In fact, when he was growing up in Massachusetts, he imagined a future on a court shooting hoops. “I was going to be a basketball player,” he recalls, but there was one problem. “I was not good.” When his younger sister, then participating in pageants, was approached to take part in acting workshops, Herisse tagged along and quickly discovered his real passion.

At age 11, his parents asked him if he wanted to pursue acting seriously. The answer was a no-brainer. “For them to hear that from an 11-year-old, and have enough faith in me that young to completely uproot their lives because I said that that was my dream...” he trails off in disbelief. His family moved to Los Angeles,...

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts behind awards season’s buzziest film continues with Nickel Boys, the feature directing debut of Oscar-nominated Hale County This Morning, This Evening filmmaker RaMell Ross, who with longtime collaborator Joslyn Barnes adapted Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-wining 2019 novel.

Orion Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios debuted the film at the Telluride Film Festival at the end of summer and its has been racking up awards recognition ever since, including Best Picture nominations from the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, Independent Spirit Awards and the Gotham Awards, where Ross won Best Director and co-star Brandon Wilson won Breakthrough Performer.

Ross and Barnes’ adapted screenplay has also been nominated for several honors especially among critics groups this season, as has Jomo Fray’s cinematography, which has drawn raves for its use of an unconventional Pov that, according to Ross, is designed to make the viewer a character.

Chicago – America’s “Jim Crow” era … the systemic period of white supremacy by legal means against black Americans … continues to yield horror stories of institutional inhumanity. One such story is in a new film, based on a popular novel, entitled “Nickel Boys, which is co-adapted and directed by RaMell Ross.

‘Nickel Boys,’ Directed by RaMell Ross (inset)

Photo credit: Amazon MGM Studios

Rating: 3.5/5.0

Based on the novel by Colson Whitehead, “Nickel Boys” takes place in 1962 during Jim Crow in Florida, as a teenage black male named Elwood (Ethan Herisse) is falsely accused by authorities as being an accomplice to stealing a car. He is sent to a segregated reform school called Nickel Academy … a fictionalized version of the real Florida Dozier School for Boys. While there, he forms a close friendship with a boy named Turner (Brandon Wilson) as they try to survive the abuse by the school and its corrupt administrators.

RaMell Ross has something to say. With his latest film, “Nickel Boys,” the co-writer and director solidifies his reputation as one of contemporary cinema’s most daring storytellers. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the film unearths the haunting realities of a fictionalized reform school, blending visceral storytelling with an experimental approach that has captured the attention of cinephiles.

Known for his Academy Award-nominated documentary “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” Ross’ unique lens, challenges the conventions of how stories about Black lives are told — and received. In a candid conversation on the Variety Awards Circuit Podcast, Ross reflects on the symbolism in “Nickel Boys,” the film industry’s treatment of Black stories, his dream collaborators, and the surprising possibility of working on a Marvel movie.

Listen below:

Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, “Nickel Boys” (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Ross describes “Nickel Boys,” which had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival,...

Nickel Boys

Enjoying nominations in almost every major set of awards this season, RaMell Ross’ bold and experimental adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Nickel Boys is one of those rare works that really tries to do something different with cinema. It opened last year’s New York Film Festival and on 3 January it will be on cinema screens all across the UK.

Inspired by real events, the film follows the story of two African American boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), who meet in a brutal reform school. I recently had the privilege of attending a Q&a session in which RaMell – also known for 2018’s remarkable Hale County This Morning, This Evening – spoke about the film, his approach to his craft, and influences such as the legendary photojournalist Gordon Parks.

“I love Gordon Parks,” he said. “What an influence he's had on culture at large! He popularised [the.

With a role in the Oscar-tipped reform school drama, the actor continues to pick parts that align with her activism. She recalls how the resilience of her grandmother – and the racism faced by her grandfather – has shaped her

There is a scene in Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s new film in which she gives a hug unlike any other hug you’ll see on screen. The film is Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel based on the real-life horror of Florida’s Dozier School for Boys, with Ellis-Taylor playing Hattie, the grandmother of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a boy incarcerated there. In the scene, she is prevented from visiting her much-missed grandson, but encounters a friend of his (Brandon Wilson), who becomes a kind of emotional proxy.

What makes this hug so special, though, is not just the intensity of the human moment, but the way it exemplifies the power of the first-person perspective,...

2024 saw its fair share of ups and downs in cinema with several gems surfacing over the year. As the year winds down it is time to look back and reflect on 2024’s best movies and former US President Barack Obama is doing just that. Obama recently took to social media and shared a list of his favorite movies of the year.

Barack Obama recently named his favorite 2024 movies (Credit: CBS News).

Obama singled out the opulent Dune 2, a major commercial success, and the Cannes Grand Prix winner All We Imagine as Light as some of the best cinema the year had to offer. However, the former President missed out on some absolute masterpieces that impressed fans. Here are five 2024 films that you must also check out.

5. A Real Pain Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain is a masterful comedy (Credit: Searchlight Pictures).

A Real Pain is a buddy-comedy movie...

Jomo Fray can pinpoint the day when the bold idea of “first-person perspective” truly clicked.

The Brooklyn-based cinematographer and his director, RaMell Ross, had spent months discussing, studying, and experimenting for the filming of “Nickel Boys.” Based on Colson Whitehead’s novel, the movie is shot almost entirely through the eyes of its main characters, Elwood and Turner (played by Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson), two young Black men at an inhumane reform school in Florida.

The eureka moment came during a scene when Elwood’s grandmother (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) visits the school to deliver bad news to her grandson. “I was the camera operator for that scene,” said Fray. “And as she was building up the courage to tell Elwood something devastating, I looked away. I find it very difficult to look a person in the eyes when I know they’re telling me something that’s difficult for them.

There might not be anything else like RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys. Adapting the 2019 novel by Colson Whitehead, Ross finds an unorthodox approach here: extrapolating the book’s third-person narrative into a first-person point-of-view, the camera almost entirely presenting the action as through the eyes of its protagonists. Think Peep Show, but as a serious and urgent drama.

It follows Elwood (Ethan Herisse), a young idealist living in Jim Crow-era Florida. Under false accusations, he’s sent to the Nickel Academy for Boys, a “correction school” — in reality a prison by any other name, complete with the exploitation of its inmates as free labour. While there, Elwood befriends another young man named Turner (Brandon Wilson), who has a much more cynical outlook on freedom for African-Americans or any potential of escaping the school itself.

The camerawork becomes a way of illustrating a character’s thoughts without narration, and with an immediacy that feels unprecedented.

When actors Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson were getting ready to film “Nickel Boys,” they had no hesitation getting onboard with director RaMell Ross’s vision of telling the story through their characters’ literal point of view, the only slight concern in the back of their minds was “I hope my friends and family don’t hear this and are like, ‘Oh, wait, so you’re not in the movie?’,” said Herisse over breakfast in the corner of a restaurant within a West Hollywood hotel.

Wilson’s mother’s reaction was more explicitly concerned, with the actor having done a found footage film not too long before “Nickel Boys” where “I was very much the cameraman for a lot of it,” he said. His response to his mom: “I’m not sure, but it’s probably going to be good, though.”

Needless to say, the Orion Pictures release, now in select theaters nationwide,...

RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys and Malcolm Washington’ The Piano Lesson dominated the nominations for the 25th Black Reel Awards with 13 and 12 noms, respectively. The films will square off in 10 categories including Outstanding Film, Director, Screenplay and Ensemble.

Titus Kaphar’s Exhibiting Forgiveness is next with nine nominations, followed by Zoë Kravitz’s Blink Twice with seven. See the full list spanning 22 categories below.

Winners will be honored during the silver anniversary ceremony held virtually on February 10 and streaming live on BlackReelAwards.com.

Related: 2024-25 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Oscars, Spirits, Grammys, Tonys, Guilds & More

“As we commemorate 25 years, we are proud to highlight the transformative power of Black cinema,” Black Reel Awards Founder Tim Gordon said. “This year’s nominees represent not only excellence in storytelling but also groundbreaking achievements that push boundaries and elevate our culture.”

Presented by Foundation for the Augmentation of African-Americans in Film, the Black...

“Nickel Boys” leads the nominations at the 25th annual Black Reel Awards, a ceremony exclusively dedicated to recognizing African American contributions to cinema.

The Amazon MGM Studios film garnered 13 nominations, followed closely by Netflix’s “The Piano Lesson” with 12; both films were nominated for outstanding film and outstanding director, plus their stars earned individual nods.

Rounding out the best film nominees are “Challengers,” “Exhibiting Forgiveness” and “Sing Sing” and joining Ross and Washington in the outstanding director category are Titus Kaphar (“Exhibiting Forgiveness”), Zoë Kravitz (“Blink Twice”) and Steve McQueen (“Blitz”). Other top-performing films include “Exhibiting Forgiveness” (nine nominations), “Blink Twice” (seven nominations) and “Sing Sing” (six nominations).

Key individual nominees include Zendaya, who earned dual recognition as an actor and producer of “Challengers,” as well as Ellis-Taylor, who got two nominations in the outstanding supporting performance category for “Nickel Boys” and “Exhibiting Forgiveness,” and Brian Tyree Henry, nominated in...

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is using her fashion to make a statement!

The Oscar-nominated actress, best known for her work in King Richard and Origin, attended the premiere of her new movie Nickel Boys on Monday night (December 16) at the DGA Theater Complex in Los Angeles.

Aunjanue was joined at the event by co-stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Daveed Diggs, Fred Hechinger, Hamish Linklater (with wife Lily Rabe), and Jimmie Fails, as well as writer and director RaMell Ross.

On the red carpet, Aunjanue told the AP how she uses fashion to challenge the ideas of femininity.

Keep reading to find out more…

“[My outfit] is Balenciaga and all of these red carpets and all these appearances that I’ve done, I’ve wanted to do something that honored my queerness, my wanting to do something that didn’t live up the expectation of femininity in these red carpet situations. I’ve wanted to push against that,...

The making of “Nickel Boys” — a film that follows two young Black boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), as they navigate a brutal reform school — presented a unique set of circumstances for cinematographer Jomo Fray. While Fray always wants his camerawork to feel vulnerable, director RaMell Ross’ vision of shooting the film with the camera’s first-person point of view blurred the usual roles on set, meaning that Fray would directly interact with the actors.

“It wasn’t just shooting Aunjanue [Ellis-Taylor] playing Hattie,” Fray told Variety at the film’s Los Angeles premiere on Monday night. “When the camera needed to imbue Elwood’s consciousness, if I was operating, it was about taking that in and seeing the image, not as Jomo, but as Elwood … Having that physical intimacy fundamentally changes the way you make images.”

Before making the film, Ellis-Taylor, whose character Hattie is Elwood’s grandmother,...

In cinema, films based on true stories are often considered “safe,” but that couldn’t be further from the case for Los Frikis. Produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the Spider-Verse movies), Los Frikis takes its challenging subject matter and infuses it with genuine heart, making it an irresistible crowd-pleaser despite all the odds stacked against it.

Los Frikis Review

Los Frikis tells the story of a group of impoverished punk rockers living in Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union who decide to inject themselves with HIV to allow them to live at a state-sponsored sanitarium for AIDS patients. The film is based on true events that many in America have likely never heard of, but it feels incredibly necessary nevertheless.

For an independent production, Los Frikis is actually a very strong movie from a technical standpoint. The cinematography and set design are very impressive, making...

Illustrations by Zoé Maghamès Peters.Artists think about it all the time. What is in me? How am I going to get it out? And what is it going to be once I get it out there? These thoughts are not just the precursor to a practice, but fuel for the creative act. When you think this way, nearly everything in life becomes admissible as evidence of some great work to come: that object, those gestures, her voice, this taste, these words in that order. The resulting practice might merely represent these observations, or it might transform them into new language. When I first speak with the artist and filmmaker RaMell Ross this fall, on a rainy morning in a small and busy PR office in midtown Manhattan, our conversation winds through combinations of questions, prompts, declarations, and answers. Ross’s way of talking, like his filmmaking style, is discursive yet harmonic.

The Toronto Film Critics Association has named RaMell Ross’s narrative debut Nickel Boys as its best movie of 2024, adding to the film’s award season prominence.

In voting on Sunday, Toronto film reviewers also gave the drama about a friendship between two young African American men navigating a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida the best director prize for Ross, who also shared the best adapted screenplay honor with Joslyn Barnes.

The best picture runner-ups were Sean Baker’s Anora and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist. Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel, debuted at Telluride and stars Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

In the acting categories, the best lead performance crown was shared by Marianne Jean-Baptiste for her role in Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths and Mikey Madison for Anora. And the best supporting performance honor was split...

RaMell Ross’ newest film Nickel Boys tells the story of the friendship of Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) as the two navigate a harsh Florida reform school in the 1960s. Based on the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead, the film has been praised by critics for its artful adaptation of Whitehead’s book, and how it uses a masterful combination of aspect ratio and Pov camera shots to make viewers feel like they’re looking out through the eyes of the boys; Rolling Stone’s film...

So much of how director RaMell Ross adapted Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel “The Nickel Boys” grew out of his first nonfiction feature film “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.” With that film, Ross, an established photographer, wrestled with how to adapt his still image practice into a single moving image, but also the complexity of the Black experience juxtaposed to the history of the Black image in the South.

While on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, Ross talked about how adapting Colson’s novel presented an opportunity to expand on what he accomplished with his groundbreaking “Hale County.”

“One idea Joss [producer Joslyn Barnes] and I had talked about early in the writing process was, what if Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson) had their own cameras to document their own lives at that time?,” said Ross on the podcast. “There’s not much visual poetry from Black folks perspectives that exist in the ’50s,...

“Nickel Boys” hits theaters this week after winning three of the eight honorary awards announced by the African-American Film Critics Association last month.

The film is a dramatic adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s bestselling novel, “The Nickel Boys,” and is centered on two Black teens as they journey through a brutal reform school in Florida.

The “Nickel Boys” movie was written by Joslyn Barnes and RaMell Ross, who also directed the film in his narrative feature film debut. Serving as producers are Barnes, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and David Levine, while Brad Pitt, Gabby Shepard, Emily Wolfe, Kenneth Yu and Chadwick Prichard are executive producers.

Excited fans can watch the film this week, and TheWrap is here to tell you how. Check out all the details, below:

When does “Nickel Boys” come out?

“Nickel Boys” opens in select New York theaters on Dec. 14, expands to more New York and Los Angeles theaters on Dec.

With just a few weeks left in 2024, notable films continue to land with Nickel Boys and The Last Showgirl officially jumping into awards season — the former already a two-time winner at the first stop, the Gotham Awards. A few big indie stories are yet to be told, with Babygirl and A Complete Unknown hitting for Christmas, making it possible to opine definitively on the year’s improving indie film market. The Brutalist, also being widely recognized this season, opens next week.

Nickel Boys by RaMell Ross from Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures is the much-nominated film based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It opens at two NYC theaters with an LA expansion Dec. 20, adding other markets into January.

The gripping film is writer/director Ross’s narrative debut after his acclaimed 2018 documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening. It world-premiered at Telluride...

“Nickel Boys” writer/director RaMell Ross has already been toasted as a filmmaker to watch this awards season for his acclaimed adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

Now, ahead of the film’s premiere, a new trailer is giving more details about the elusive plotline that plays with perspective.

The official synopsis reads: “Elwood Curtis’ college dream shatters alongside a two-lane Florida highway. Bearing the brunt of an innocent misstep, he’s sentenced to the netherworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory sunk deep in the Jim Crow South. He encounters another ward, the seen-it-all Turner. The two Black teens strike up an alliance: Turner dispensing fundamental tips for survival, Elwood, clinging to his optimistic worldview. Backdropped by the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, Elwood and Turner’s existence appear worlds away from Rev. Martin Luther King’s burnished oratory. Despite Nickel’s brutality, Elwood strives to hold onto his humanity,...

"It's now or never." MGM + Orion have unveiled the second & final trailer for the film Nickel Boys, which has started playing in select US theaters now. This film is a modern masterpiece and will be on my Top 10 of the year, along with many others. Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel from Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys chronicles the powerful friendship between two African American men navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together in Florida. Nickel Boys stars Ethan Herisse as Elwood, Brandon Wilson as Turner, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, & Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. It's presented mainly from the Pov of the two main characters, which gives it an especially distinct look and feel. Reviews add: "By the time the credits roll, Ross will have made a lasting & unique impression of heartbreak on the souls of all who watch his film—precisely the cinematic treatment that Whitehead's novel required.

Fred Hechinger’s dedication to acting all but hinges on his dedication to auteurs. And according to the breakout star of “Nickel Boys,” “Gladiator II,” and “Kraven the Hunter” this holiday season, the line between indies and blockbusters is only really defined by who’s directing.

“I just really believe in movies. I love them so much, and it’s always a kind of trick of timing when two projects that were made in very different contexts in different times come out near one another,” Hechinger told IndieWire of working with RaMell Ross and Ridley Scott for “Nickel Boys” and “Gladiator II,” respectively. “But I think it’s especially exciting when, formally, they’re so opposite. Both of these directors’ work are inspiring, but they’re completely different.”

Hechinger added, “There’s no one way to direct a movie, other than it has to be personal, and it has to...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during the 2024 Telluride Film Festival. “Nickel Boys” opens December 13.

A leaf twirls through a pair of Black fingers. A deck of playing cards is bridged together in extreme close-up. A dry-cleaned suit hangs out the window of a parked car like it’s waiting for its body to come back. A boy named Elwood studies his reflection in his grandmother’s steaming iron, and later in the window display of the local Tallahassee electronic shop whose TVs are broadcasting a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. The year is 1962, Jim Crow laws are still in full effect across the South, and young Elwood Curtis (Ethan Herisse) can’t help but see himself in the world around him — he can’t help but think he can change it.

In the news, Elwood sees men shooting themselves into outer space. At home, Elwood sees...

A title card at the start of RaMell Ross’s debut feature, Hale County, This Morning This Evening, seemed to serve as a vision statement for his work: “using time to figure out how we’ve come to be seen.” The filmmaker’s impressionistic documentary portrait, which followed the ordinary lives of two men in the Black Belt of the American South, heralded a filmmaker immediately comfortable interrogating how viewers perceive images.

With his first foray into fiction filmmaking, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Nickel Boys, Ross pushes that language to new heights in interrogating historical narratives and invoking the audience’s empathy. The horrors of a Florida reform school—inspired by the real-life Dozier School for Boys—in the 1960s are felt, not shown, through Jomo Fray’s first-person camerawork in Nickel Boys. Inverting the long history of image-making that largely treats Black bodies as objects of surveillance,...

That movies are capable of being machines of empathy, as Roger Ebert once said, is taken as a given — it’s just a matter of how that empathy is generated. You might have heard that Nickel Boys, director RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s 2019 novel, takes a bold and highly unusual approach to translating its source material to the screen. Before the first of our two tour guides takes us through the Jim Crow South circa the early 1960s — and into the Nickel Academy, a reformatory-slash-racist hellhole based on...

A groundbreaking adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel from 2019, RaMell Ross’ poetic and visionary Nickel Boys finds its resilient spirit and lyrical temperament in the details. The opening of the film—shot (like the rest of it) in a boxed 4:3 aspect ratio that amplifies its intimately searching feel...

Hyperbole can be an issue when writing about films. For the most part, I don't think those who traffic in gushing, pull-quote ready words of praise do so inauthentically. I simply think it's very easy to get excited about a movie, especially when that movie is good. Still, it's necessary to be realistic, just as it is to be honest. Yet every now and then, a movie comes along that warrants the most effusive praise possible. I'm telling you all of this so you understand where I'm coming from when I say that RaMell Ross' "Nickel Boys" is unlike any movie you've ever seen before. Ross has somehow invented a distinct, unique, and fresh cinematic language for his adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Nickel Boys," creating a film that feels like an actual memory plucked straight from someone's mind. Dream-like, harrowing, beautiful, stunning; all these words...

Star power was strong at the Critics Choice Association’s 7th annual Celebration of Black Cinema and Television, where some 14 awards were presented to actors, producers, directors and composers, including Tyler Perry, Cynthia Erivo, Regina King and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

The ceremony, held at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Monday, was hosted by comedian Jay Pharoah, who brought levity to the room as the night’s honorees spoke about the impact of their awards and the work for which they were garnered.

Perry addressed the death of Steve Mensch, the president of Tyler Perry Studios who died in a plane crash Friday night, while acknowledging the 15th anniversary of his mother’s death just the day before while accepting the Icon Award presented to him by Kelly Rowland.

“This life is but a moment, it’s so precious, and we need to lean into spreading love one to another; I’m 55 years old,...

Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson are the stars of Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ bold and brilliant adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel that tells the story, cinematically, almost entirely in a first-person Pov-style. Herisse and Wilson talk about the challenge of acting to the camera, their saga of navigating auditions, the “freedom” and “openness” they both felt from Ross, how the trust they built with the crew played a big part in performing in this process, and much more. Nickel Boys opens in select theaters on December 14th. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple […]

The post Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson on the Unique Challenge of Performing in Nickel Boys— Back To One, Episode 321 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson are the stars of Nickel Boys, RaMell Ross’ bold and brilliant adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel that tells the story, cinematically, almost entirely in a first-person Pov-style. Herisse and Wilson talk about the challenge of acting to the camera, their saga of navigating auditions, the “freedom” and “openness” they both felt from Ross, how the trust they built with the crew played a big part in performing in this process, and much more. Nickel Boys opens in select theaters on December 14th. Back To One can be found wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple […]

The post Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson on the Unique Challenge of Performing in Nickel Boys— Back To One, Episode 321 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor stars as Hattie and Ethan Herisse as Elwood in director RaMell Ross’s ‘Nickel Boys’ (Photo © 2024 Amazon Content Services LLC)

During his career, writer/director RaMell Ross has worked primarily in documentaries, and he’s done it all there, with features, short films (Easter Snap), and television episodes (“Independent Lens”). Now, he’s trying his hand at narrative with the feature Nickel Boys.

Nickel Boys is about a young black man in Jim Crow Florida named Elwood (Ethan Herisse from The American Society of Magical Negroes) who is falsely accused of being an accomplice in a car theft and is sent to a reform school called The Nickel Academy. There, he makes friends with another boy named Turner (The Way Back’s Brandon Wilson), and the pair is forced to survive the corruption and abuse of the school.

RaMell Ross, along with co-writer Joslyn Barnes, adapted the screenplay...

Some movies are so special that you know you are watching something major despite its flaws. This is the case with Nickel Boys, the narrative feature debut of Academy Award-nominated filmmaker RaMell Ross. With Nickel Boys, Ross takes an entirely distinctive approach to its subject matter, telling a story the likes of which we have seen before in a way that feels unlike anything else you’ve seen before.

Nickel Boys Review

Based on the novel by Colson Whitehead (The Underground Railroad), Nickel Boys tells the story of two teenagers subjected to awful treatment while living at a reform school in North Florida. The story is based on a real-life reform school that made national headlines in the late 2010s when dozens of unmarked graves of victims of the school’s staff were discovered.

Brandon Wilson stars as Turner in director RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys, from Orion Pictures. Photo credit: Courtesy of Orion Pictures.

There are not normally a lot of barricades outside our humble event honoring some of our favorite filmmakers, stars, and artisans on the trail this awards season, but the winter edition of IndieWire Honors, our first to focus solely on film, was our starriest event yet.

At a cocktail hour, guests sipped on Gia Coppola Wine, Francis Ford Coppola Winery’s Diamond Collection Sauvignon Blanc and Prosecco, and Rabbit Hole Whiskey. In attendance were the casts and filmmakers of “The Last Showgirl” and “Nickel Boys,” who met backstage, including director Coppola, screenwriter Kate Gertsen, actors Brenda Song, Ethan Herisse, plus recent Gotham Award winner Brandon Wilson — there to support Performance Award recipient Pamela Anderson and Auteur Award recipient RaMell Ross. Then the awards kicked off. IndieWire publisher James Israel and editor-in-chief Dana Harris-Bridson provided an overview of the night honoring everyone from “Dune” director Denis Villeneuve to stars Jennifer Lopez...

In a refreshing and unpredictable swerve, Aaron Schimberg’s New York theater satire “A Different Man” picked up Best Feature at the 2024 Gotham Awards on Monday night. The Sundance premiere, about a washed-up actor (Sebastian Stan) with neurofibromatosis who undergoes facial reconstruction surgery only to be confronted by his much more confident double (Adam Pearson), shot on the Upper West Side in New York and has been an awards season dark horse with support from critics here.

Stan is also in the Oscar mix for his portrayal of Donald Trump in “The Apprentice,” which didn’t place on the Gotham nominations list. Bets were on “Anora” to win the Best Feature prize, so “A Different Man” winning was an unexpected treat.

At the event held at Cipriani on Wall Street, I bumped into Stan and Pearson early in the evening, with Pearson flying in from the U.K. over the...

‘Anora’ y ‘The Brutalist’ se van de vacío. © Getty Pictures

Ya se conocen los ganadores a los Premios Gotham, unos galardones que premian lo mejor del cine independiente estadounidense y que dan el pistoletazo de salida oficial (como cada año) a la temporada de premios.

Este año, la sorpresa la ha dado A Different Man, que se ha hecho con el máximo galardón, el de Mejor Película, imponiéndose a Anora, Babygirl, Challengers y Nickel Boys. La película de Aaron Schimberg protagonizada por Sebastian Stan y Adam Pearson llegará a los cines en España de la mano de Vértigo Films. El filme gana así un importante impulso de cara a la temporada de premios. En los últimos diez años, ocho de las ganadoras de esta categoría en los Gotham fueron nominadas al Oscar a la Mejor Película y cinco de ellas lograron la estatuilla.

Las otras dos grandes triunfadoras de los...

'A Different Man' won the Best Feature gong at the Gotham Awards on Monday night (12.02.24).The psychological thriller film - which stars Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson - received the coveted award at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City, and director Aaron Schimberg subsequently admitted to being "stunned" by the movie's success.He said: "I thought it would be, considering the other nominees, hubris to even consider preparing a speech. So I’m going to wing this."I’m sorry I really didn’t prepare a better speech. I really didn’t see this as a possibility."The movie tells the story of a struggling actor living with neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition that causes tumours to grow along your nerves.Elsewhere, 'Sing Sing' - the drama film directed by Greg Kwedar - won two awards on the night, including Colman Domingo winning the...

The first major awards show of the season has spoken, and the future looks bright for A24 as A Different Man took best feature and Sing Sing top acting honours for Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin at the 34th Gotham Awards on Monday night.

Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anora, which began the night at Cipriani Wall Street in New York with the most nominations on four, went home empty-handed. However Sean Baker’s madcap romantic comedy is expected to figure prominently as awards season continues.

Aaron Schimberg’s dark comedy A Different Man premiered in Sundance and stars Sebastian Stan...

A Different Man won best feature at the 2024 Gotham Awards, while Nickel Boys and Sing Sing each won two awards at the star-studded ceremony at New York’s Cipriani Wall Street on Monday night.

A Different Man director Aaron Schimberg, accepting the top prize, said he was “totally stunned” by the win and admitted he hadn’t prepared a speech.

“I thought it would be, considering the other nominees, hubris to even consider preparing a speech. So I’m going to wing this,” Schimberg said before thanking the Gothams and the team behind the film, including stars Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson. “I’m sorry I really didn’t prepare a better speech. I really didn’t see this as a possibility.”

Going into the ceremony, Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning Anora led with four nominations, including for best feature, but the film went home empty-handed.

In best feature,...

“A Different Man” was named the best independent film of the year at the 2024 Gotham Awards, which took place on Monday night in New York City.

The win for the drama starring Sebastian Stan came as a surprise at the end of a show in which “Nickel Boys” and “Sing Sing” had been the big winners, and in which “Anora” came in with the most nominations but left empty-handed.

In the gender-neutral acting categories, Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin won the lead and supporting awards for “Sing Sing.” Domingo’s category also included Pamela Anderson for “The Last Showgirl,” Nicole Kidman for “Babygirl,” Marianne Jean-Baptiste for “Hard Truths” and Mikey Madison for “Anora,” while Maclin’s included Yura Borisov for “Anora,” Guy Pearce for “The Brutalist,” Kieran Culkin for “A Real Pain” and Danielle Deadwyler for “Nickel Boys.”

“Nickel Boys” star Brandon Wilson won the award for breakthrough actor, while that film’s director,...

A24’s “A Different Man” won best feature at the 2024 Gotham Awards Monday night at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

Meanwhile, “Sing Sing” swept the acting categories, with Colman Domingo winning for best lead performance and Clarence Maclin for best supporting performance.

Each category for nominations is decided by a different jury of critics, journalists and other industry professionals, and screening links must be provided to all its jury members. An entirely different group determines the winners. That’s in contrast with the Oscars or the BAFTAs, which are determined by actors, filmmakers and other artists who are in the entertainment industry.

In addition to the nominees, the Gothams bestowed special tributes to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Oscar winner Angelina Jolie (Performer Tribute) for “Maria,” Emmy winner Zendaya (Spotlight Tribute) for “Challengers,” Timothée Chalamet and James Mangold (Visionary Tribute) for “A Complete Unknown,” and the...

When the 34th annual Gotham Awards took place in Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Monday, December 2, the Oscar race officially began. The Gothams traditionally occupy a spot on the awards calendar as the first major film-centric ceremony of the season, giving fans their first opportunity to see the year’s biggest stars on the red carpet. The event also marks awards watchers’ first chance to gauge the state of the race.

The night’s top prize went to “A Different Man,” Aaron Schimberg’s A24 body transformation comedy that premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The film, which stars Sebastian Stan as a facially disfigured actor who undergoes an experimental surgery to boost his career, beat out Oscar frontrunners such as Sean Baker’s “Anora” and Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers.” The win could boost the award chances of both Schimberg and his stars Stan and Adam Pearson.

The Gotham Awards, honoring the best in American independent films, held their 34th annual event on Monday night, Dec. 2, launching the fall and winter awards season. So who were the big winners? Scroll down for the complete list of 2024 Gotham Awards champs in all categories, updating live throughout the night.

Nominees were decided by panels of film critics, journalists, festival programmers, and film curators. The winners were then selected by juries of writers, directors, actors, producers, editors, and others directly involved in filmmaking. Those small juries change from year to year and from category to category, so these awards can produce surprising results.

Telling the story of a young sex worker from Brooklyn who meets and impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch, “Anora” led the nominations with four bids including Best Feature, as well Sean Baker for Best Director, actress Mikey Madison for Best Lead Performance and actor...