Join us for the kick off of The Ankler and Letterboxd “Audience-First" FYC Screening Series!

RaMell Ross (Director/Co-Writer), Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Actor), and Jomo Fray (Cinematographer) join The Ankler's Katey Rich to discuss the stand-out drama.

SYNOPSIS

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead and inspired by real-life events, NICKEL BOYS chronicles the powerful friendship between two Black teenagers who become wards of a juvenile reformatory in Florida. In breakout performances that cut to the bone, Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson play Elwood and Turner, whose close bond helps sustain their hope even as truths unfold around them at the Nickel Academy. Featuring a deeply felt supporting performance from Academy Award and Emmy nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
Location
MGM Screening Room
245 N Beverly Dr,
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Date & Time
January 6, 2025

6:30 PM: Doors
7:00 PM: Screening
9:30 PM: Talent Q&A

Complimentary parking
Seating is Limited, please arrive early!


PANELISTS
RaMell Ross

Director / Co-Writer
RaMell Ross is an artist, filmmaker, writer, and liberated documentarian. He has been awarded an Aaron Siskind Foundation Individual Photographer’s Fellowship, Howard Foundation Fellowship, a USA Artist Fellowship and was a 2022 Solomon Fellow at Harvard University.

His feature experimental documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening won a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and 2020 Peabody Award. It was nominated for an Oscar at the 91st Academy Awards and an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Film. RaMell holds degrees in Sociology and English from Georgetown University and is an associate professor in Brown University’s Visual Art Department. His work is in various public and private collections such as the Museum for Modern Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the High Museum. His book Spell, Time, Practice, American, Body was shortlisted for the Kraszna-Krausz Foundation photobook award.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Actor
Oscar-nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor can currently be seen in Netflix/Lee Daniels' film THE DELIVERANCE opposite Andra Day and Glenn Close, SUPREMES-AT-EARL’S ALL YOU CAN EAT opposite Uzo Aduba and Sanaa Lathan for Searchlight/Hulu and Titus Kaphar's feature film debut EXHIBITING FORGIVENESS.

She received critical and audience acclaim for her portrayal of Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson in Ava Duvernay’s ORIGIN. For her inspired performance as Oracene Price, mother to mega superstars Venus and Serena Williams, in the Warner Bros feature KING RICHARD, AUNJANUE’S performance received a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Academy Awards and won National Board of Review, HCA, and AAFCA’s Best Supporting Actress awards. AUNJANUE additionally secured Best Supporting Actress nominations from the BAFTAs, Critics Choice, Golden Globes, and the NAACP Image Awards (among others) for her work as Oracene.
Jomo Fray

Cinematographer
Jomo Fray is an award-winning cinematographer whose work has been screened worldwide. Utilizing a strong background in visual aesthetics and philosophy his aim is to create innovative and evocative visual stories based in empathy. He seeks to build upon a long tradition of what he calls experiential storytelling--films that strive to have the viewer not only see the story, but feel it as well. Some recent honors include a 2024 Independent Spirit Award nomination for his work on the film All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. He was also featured as one of the 2018 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine as well as one of the 2022 American Cinematographer Magazine's Rising Stars of Cinematography. His most recent feature film work includes Selah and the Spades (Sundance 2019), Port Authority (Cannes 2019), No Future (Tribeca 2020), Runner (TIFF 2022), All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (Sundance 2023), and The Young Wife (SXSW 2023). Television credits include Terence Nance’s Random Acts of Flyness and Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad. He has also shot commercial content for Nike, Dove, Tumi, Levi, and other premiere brands. He attended Brown University for his undergraduate education and received his MFA in Cinematography at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Katey Rich

MODERATOR
Katey Rich is The Ankler's Awards Editor & Writer of Prestige Junkie
SCHEDULE
6:30PM
Doors
7:00PM
Screening
9:30PM
Talent Q&A

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