The African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) will hold its annual awards ceremony, the AAFCA Awards, on Feb. 7, 2018, it was announced by AAFCA President Gil Robertson. The event, now in its ninth year, will celebrate the best of the year in film, television and new media in 18 categories including best picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actress, ensemble cast, independent film, documentary, animated film, foreign film, screenplay, music, new media, TV comedy and TV drama. 

As previously announced, the 9th Annual AAFCA Awards will celebrate 2017 as the year of women in cinema, recognizing the unprecedented number of women who have helmed this year’s critically and commercially successful features such as Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”), Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), Dee Rees (“Mudbound”), Angela Robinson (“Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman”), Kathryn Bigelow (“Detroit”), Valerie Faris (“Battle of the Sexes”), Bonni Cohen (“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”), Sofia Coppola (“The Beguiled”), Agnès Varda (“Faces and Places”) and Lynne Ramsay (“You Were Never Really Here”), among others.

The winners are chosen by AAFCA’s full membership which is comprised of African American journalists across the country.  Voting takes place on Dec. 10, 2017 and winners will be announced to the media on Dec. 12, 2017.  Those winners will be celebrated at the 9th Annual AAFCA Awards on Feb. 7, 2018 as awards season is in full swing.

As previously announced, AAFCA will celebrate five honorary award recipients at the 9th Annual AAFCA Special Achievement Luncheon including writer/director of “Get Out” Jordan Peele, ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey, Alcon Entertainment’s co-CEO’s Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove and Los Angeles Film Festival president Claudia Puig. 

A complete voting timeline follows:

  • Dec. 8 – Deadline to screen or provide screeners for AAFCA Awards consideration
  • Dec. 10 – AAFCA voting deadline
  • Dec. 12 – AAFCA Awards winners announced
  • Feb. 3 – 9th Annual AAFCA Special Achievement Luncheon
  • Feb. 7 – 9th Annual AAFCA Awards

About AAFCA
Established in 2003, AAFCA’s primary mission is to cultivate understanding, appreciation and advancement of the contributions of African descended talent to cinematic and television culture – from the artistic and technical legends of the past to the still unimagined breakthroughs of future generations of media content professionals

AAFCA actively reviews cinema at-large, with a particular emphasis on films that include the Black experience.  The organization creates a platform for movies with universal appeal to the African-American community, while highlighting films produced, written, directed and starring persons from the African Diaspora.  AAFCA and its members are also involved in education and advocacy work that includes programming for students interested in film criticism and journalism. 

AAFCA members are a geographically diverse cross-section of journalists, covering all genres of the cinematic arts, while representing multiple mediums – including print, TV, radio broadcast and online. Collectively, they reach a worldwide audience in excess of 100 million.

For more information on AAFCA and its programs visit AAFCA.COM.