Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis is set to receive the Icon Award from the African American Film Critics Association during the 12th annual AAFCA awards April 7, Variety announced today. Past winners of the Icon Award include Sidney Poitier and Kenya Barris.
“Viola Davis has excelled in every single format available to an actor,” said AAFCA president Gil Robertson. “She’s a powerhouse actress who continues to impress with her incredible range and ability to lend herself to any era and dig deep into the humanity of every character she plays.”
Davis was previously awarded the best actress award during AAFCA’s TV honors in August 2020 for her performance in the final season of How to Get Away with Murder. Davis also won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2017 for Fences.
Most recently, Davis starred in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was very well received by critics and audiences, and was named one of the best films of 2020 by the AAFCA. Her co-star in the film, the late Chadwick Boseman, is also set to be posthumously honored with the best actor award during the virtual AAFCA awards.
“When you think about her in Doubt, The Help, Fences and now Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, she just goes there,” Robertson continued. “Following in the footsteps of other legendary actresses by becoming an advocate for social justice issues and taking additional steps of creating the images that we see by producing, she has firmly established herself as a true artist.”
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