African American Film Critics Association Awards Celebrates Black Excellence As Amber Ruffin Throws Shade At Elon Musk

Tyler Perry made a special trip to present an award to Nicole Avant.

Filmmaker and actor Tyler Perry showed up for the Los Angeles 16th annual African American Film Critics Association Awards to present his friend Nicole Avant with her Beacon Award. The ceremony was held on Feb. 19 and included touching and relevant speeches from Avant and AAFCA host Amber Ruffin.

Perry made a round-trip journey to attend the AAFCA awards ceremony, feeling the quick turnaround was worth the sacrifice. He wanted to be the one to present Avant with her award as part of the AAFCA’s mission to uplift Black storytellers, “especially in this climate when there’s so many attacks on who we are, what our stories are,” Perry said.

Avant, who is the daughter of the late philanthropist Jacqueline Avant and Clarence Avant, “The Black Godfather,” opened up about coming from generational talent and Black excellence on the red carpet.

Avant said, “I’m sure they are beaming down. My mom would always tell me to go out in the world and be the light. Choose which side you’re on, and then play ball.”

According to Variety, Avant’s on-stage speech after receiving the Beacon Award continued to discuss coming from “Hollywood royalty” and also how she hoped the AAFCA continued to encourage all those who capture the Black experience through their art.

“These giants just happened to be some of my parents’ very best friends, and I was fortunate enough to be fueled by them and by their grit, their grace, their gratitude, their compassion and their resilience,” Avant told guests. “They each asked me, in their own way, to take their survival energy, and transmute it into a new energy, and that energy would thrive. They reminded me of their hardships and their obstacles, and they asked me to never forget them. But more importantly, they reminded me that I am the promise, and all of you are the promise.”

Other notable award recipients besides Avant included “Sing Sing” star Colman Domingo and “Hard Truths” actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Filmmakers Malcolm Washington and RaMell Ross were also honored.

Perry referenced the tumultuous political climate in America as the AAFCA ceremony took place, but Awards host Amber Ruffin explicitly called such events important at a time like this.

Making reference to the Trump administration targeting federal DEI programs across the country, Ruffin delivered a relevant opening monologue for the night.

Ruffin began, “I have to be honest, though, things feel pretty bad right now. Between the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion; the price of eggs; and the price of Cowboy Carter tickets.”

“Ticketmaster needs to be canceled, I don’t trust anything with master in the name. Can anyone give me a ride home? I no longer have money for an Uber.”

Ruffin continued to say that she was uplifted by the energy of AAFCA, and the progress that comes from giving awards to producers and political activists like Avant.

“This group proves that no matter what they think they can take from us, we will continue to spread joy through the power of film. And our joy is our resilience,” She stated.

Ruffin concluded, “That’s the beautiful thing about Black cinema and Black art in general: we create indespiteWe boldly tell our stories in spite of. We excel in spite of. And tonight, we celebrate with each other in spite of. We’re going to leave the BS out there for right now as we uplift our artists and filmmakers and their little white DEI hires.”

AAFCA president and co-founder Gil Robertson agreed, “Our image is a powerful one. If you consider that we are 15% of the population, but yet our influence just cuts into just about every area, every index of this country, Black folks have changed the game, have redefined, have rescripted, have transformed.”