Director RaMell Ross, whose film Nickel Boys arrives in theaters on December 13, is basking in the glow of the movie’s recognition by the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA). The nonprofit, which announced its honorees for the 2025 Special Achievement Awards last week, has awarded Nickel Boys the Karen & Stanley Kramer Social Justice Award. Ross is also receiving the Spotlight Award from the 16th Annual AAFCA Awards.
Inspired by Colson Whitehead’s fictionalized account of the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, a Florida reform school notorious for its century-long history of abuse, Ross’s searing drama retells the harrowing stories of young men subjected to beatings, rape, torture and murder.
“I’ve always admired the members of AAFCA and their advocacy and enthusiasm for cinema,” Ross told EBONY. “I’m a kid that grew up on military bases who had their first career in sports with early ambitions for a job in the government. It is very surreal!”
With few knowing about this tragic experience for many young men in the 20th century, Ross felt compelled to bring Whitehead’s word to the screen. “Colson is a living legend, and his novel The Nickel Boys counteracted the attempted erasure of Florida’s Dozier School Boys,” he declared. “To represent his iconic characters and give them a poetic life was an opportunity too incredible to pass up. With the current and steady suppressing and erasing of our histories, there seemed nothing more urgent than memorializing the Dozier Boys in the echelons of cinema.”
The other 2025 Special Achievement Awards honorees include Lynn Whitfield (Legacy Award), Brandon Wilson and Ethan Herisse (Gen Next Award) and Amber Rasberry (Horizon Award). Nicole Avant (Beacon Award) and The Piano Lesson’s Malcolm Washington (Emerging Director Award) and Ray Fisher (Breakout Performance Award) round out 16th Annual AAFCA Awards.
AAFCA’s Special Achievement Awards will take place February 2, 2025, at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and the 16th Annual AAFCA Awards will take place February 19, 2025, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.
