By Richy Rosario @RiiiichyRosario
The 2018 American Black Film Festival Honors was held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California.
Hosted by Cedric the Entertainer, the star-studded event awarded the likes of coveted director Ava DuVernay (who won the Industry Visionary Award) and Tracee Ellis Ross & Deon Cole (who won an award from the “Outstanding Comedic Television Series category for Black-ish).
Before the commencement of the award show, red carpet host Jazzie Belle caught up with a slew of actors and producers on the red carpet. And while some of our favorites won accolades, the man of the night was Ryan Coogler for his stellar contribution to the Marvel universe with—you guessed it—Black Panther.
“It feels like a dream. I don’t know if I ever thought about it or imagined it that it will be,” Angela Bassett who plays Queen Ramonda in Black Panther said about the film. “So it caught me a bit by surprise, but I’m very happy about it.”
Others in attendance like Insecure stars Yvonne Orji and Lil Rel Howery professed their interest in working with Coogler in the near future. “Ryan, what up? Listen, I know you got Michael B. Jordan, but there’s also another female that you can also have in all of your movies,” Orji noted. “Like, why not? Let’s build something together.”
But #WakandaForever and Coogler’s prowess as a director wasn’t the only topic of conversation. The reboot of ’90s epic comedy series Martin was also on our radar. When asked about the possibility of the show making a comeback, Tichina Arnold (who played Pamela “Pam” James) had this much to say:
“We’re not trying to re-do it we want to breathe new life into Martin so if we can do that, and do it correctly it will happen. If not, onto the next.”
