The Beverly Wilshire Hotel was exploding with Black excellence during Essence’s 12th annual Black Women In Hollywood Awards. The ballroom was packed with A-list Hollywood players like Regina King, Angela Bassett, Octavia Spencer, and Ava DuVernay, who came out to celebrate the contributions and achievements of some of…

EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has secured the rights to Gina Prince-Bythewood’s female-fronted action film The Old Guard, which is based on the comic book series by Greg Rucka and illustrator Leandro Fernández. As previously announced, the feature stars Charlize Theron and If Beale Street Could Talk breakout KiKi Layne. Rucka is…

“Love cannot be taken from your heart," says Barry Jenkins. "Love is too important." It is a lesson the director of Medicine for Melancholy and Moonlight—both films about love's survival in spite of challenging circumstances—has finally learned. "You've made me sound like a f*cking romantic," he told me two years ago…

For writer-director Barry Jenkins, the story of If Beale Street Could Talk isn’t entirely found in its plot, but rather in its impressionistic, sometimes dialogue-free scenes that unfold for minutes at a time. “I think they advance the emotion in a very concrete way,” he said at Deadline’s Contenders New York event…

At Deadline’s The Contenders Los Angeles today, Annapurna Pictures showed off two dramas from their impressive awards-season slate, and a unifying concern emerged: The American Dream, and the ways it has changed over time. While members of the privileged class have bent it into a new, baser shape, for those less…

EXCLUSIVE: WME has signed KiKi Layne, the newbie star of Barry Jenkins’ upcoming If Beale Street Could Talk. WME will represent Layne in all areas. In addition to starring in November’s Beale Street, Layne’s slate is filled with high profile projects. Layne will star in A24’s Native Son directed by Rashid Johnson. She…

Newcomer KiKi Layne has landed the lead role in Barry Jenkins’ film adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel If Beale Street Could Talk, beating out more than 300 young women who auditioned. Layne will star as Tish, a newly engaged Harlem woman who races against the clock to prove her lover's innocence while carrying their…