Latest in Sidney Poitier

Final Oscar voting begins today, and Deadline is providing a last call to consider the films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. The hope is that these will remind voters how they felt when they saw these great films, and pull the focus away from the toxic narratives that have marred this long awards season. This sta…

In a youth obsessed industry, the Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival, which runs through Sunday in Hollywood, is an oasis of cinematic treasures in the midst of a business that doesn’t always value its storied past. Once again the brain trust behind this unique orgy of movie magic from another time has…

Having already been given BAFTA’s lifetime achievement Britannia Award in 2006, Sidney Poitier is doubling up on the career honors from the British Academy. On February 14, at the BAFTA Film Awards, the legendary and pioneering actor will receive the org’s highest accolade, the Fellowship. He joins such previous…

Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lyndon B. Johnson are in the news for very different reasons. A movie set in the South, dealing with race relations, wins a best picture Oscar nomination even though the black star of the film does not. Its director ultimately is overlooked. The Oscars are shrouded in controversy…

The 1963 Oscar ceremony marked a significant milestone in the history of the Academy Awards—and for African-American actors. Sidney Poitier took the best actor prize for Lilies Of The Field, an "Amen" moment, to quote the best picture nominee's famous song, if ever there was one. Until Poitier, only Hattie McDaniel…

Noticing a significant trend that defines a large part of this awards season and movie-going year, the Broadcast  Film Critics Association (BFCA) announced Tuesday that they have partnered with L.A.’s House Of Blues  to produce an evening  devoted to what they are terming a “Celebration Of Black Cinema“.  The event…

“I feel sort of a disconnect. It’s overwhelming. Very surreal,” the Fulfillment Fund Stars 2013 benefit gala honoree Chris Meledandri told me as he made his way around the Beverly Hilton ballroom last night. “There are some very interesting machinations intertwined in the room.” It seems like every studio executive…

EXCLUSIVE: Adam McKay is in negotiations to develop to direct Uptown Saturday Night, the Warner Bros remake that the studio hopes will star Will Smith and Denzel Washington. Smith and James Lassiter’s Overbrook Entertainment has been developing the project. Tim Dowling wrote the most recent draft. The idea is for…

Tuesday night is a big one for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. They hold their annual election for president (expect current prexy Tom Sherak to be easily re-elected for his third and final one-year term) and they will choose the 2011 recipients of the Governors Awards, which will be some combination…

He may have only received his first major big-screen break at the age of 50 in 1987’s Street Smart, but Morgan Freeman has created such a distinguished body of work in the quarter of a century since then that Thursday night he was named the 39th recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for a career in film. Just…