Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis Selected for Gotham Award Tributes

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The Independent Filmmaker Project has selected Chadwick Boseman​ as the recipient of a posthumous Actor Tribute, while Viola Davis​ will receive an Actress Tribute at the IFP Gotham Awards.

The awards will be presented to the “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” co-stars at the 30th Anniversary of the IFP Gotham Awards ceremony on Jan. 11, 2021. The awards show will be presented live from Cipriani Wall Street New York in a hybrid format featuring virtual interactive tables in order to follow COVID-19 guidelines.

“Chadwick Boseman was an incredibly talented actor whose significance and impact on-screen and kindness off-screen will never be forgotten. We at IFP are forever indebted to him for all of his contributions to our organization, his legacy in providing mentorship, and we are proud to honor him and all of his historical and groundbreaking contributions with this tribute,” said Jeffrey Sharp, executive director of IFP.

“Viola Davis is a force within the industry, acting in some of the most culturally impactful and influential films of the past two decades,” he added. “While universally recognized in her achievements on the stage, television and film, her extraordinary performance in ​’Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ is in many ways the culmination of an entire career. Chadwick and Viola’s work on this film marks the first year in which The Gotham Awards have honored two actors from the same film with a tribute. Both are champions within our industry and we look forward to celebrating their accomplishments.”

Boseman, who died on Aug. 28 from colon cancer, had his first major role in ​”Persons Unknown​,” and went on to star as baseball player Jackie Robinson in “42,” singer James Brown in “Get on Up” and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in “Marshall.” He starred as the Black Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was most recently seen in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.

Davis won an Oscar and Golden Globe for her performance in Denzel Washington’s “Fences,” was nominated for both an Oscar and Golden Globe for her roles in Tate Taylor’s “The Help” and John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt.” She also won an Emmy Award for her role in​ “How to Get Away with Murder,” and stars opposite Boseman in George C. Wolfe’s upcoming “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

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