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In-Conversation with Viola Davis
Director: Viola Davis
Viola Davis is an acclaimed American actress and film producer celebrated for her powerful performances across screen and stage. She is one of the few artists to achieve both the Triple Crown of Acting—winning an Academy Award, Emmy, and Tony—and the prestigious EGOT. Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2012 and 2017. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her ninth among the greatest actors of the 21st century. In 2017, Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, presented by her Doubt co-star Meryl Streep. During her acceptance speech, Davis reflected, “God has blessed my life in abundance.” Streep wrote about Davis for Time, praising her artistic gifts as “deep and rich and true” and highlighting her cultural significance, saying Davis has “carved a place for herself on the Mount Rushmore of the 21st century.” That same year, Davis was named Harvard University’s Artist of the Year. In 2022, Davis starred in The Woman King, a historical epic about the Kingdom of Dahomey, where she portrayed Nanisca, a general of an all-female military unit. Her performance was widely acclaimed. That same year, she was cast as Dr. Volumnia Gaul in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, a prequel to the popular film series. Earlier, Davis portrayed former First Lady Michelle Obama in the Showtime series The First Lady. Davis is also a passionate advocate against childhood hunger in the United States. Since 2014, she has worked with the Hunger Is campaign, drawing on her own experiences growing up in poverty. She has shared, “Seventeen million kids in this country, one in five, go to bed hungry. I was one of those kids.” Davis rummaged through trash and stole food as a child, an experience that fuels her activism today. Speaking at the 2014 Variety Power of Women luncheon, she emphasized the campaign’s mission to “eradicate” hunger, stating that all children deserve a chance to achieve their dreams. To support this cause, Davis launched the $30K in 30 Days Project, awarding grants to organizations like the Rhode Island Community Food Bank in her home state. Her dedication to philanthropy complements her extraordinary contributions to film and culture, solidifying her legacy as both an artist and advocate.
AÏCHA
Director: Mehdi M. Barsaoui
Aya is the sole survivor of a bus crash on a mountain road. When she realises that nobody knows she is alive, she makes a snap decision to escape her dead-end village existence and become someone else. In thriving, liberal Tunis, she calls herself Amira, a thrilling change until one of those men is murdered and the investigating police start to question “Amira”’s sketchy life story. Fatma Sfar is vivid and immediately sympathetic as Aya/Amira, while narrative twists and nested details gradually reveal that she isn’t the only trickster with something to hide. Aicha was judged Best Mediterranean Film from the Academy of Fine Arts at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
MOON
Director: Kurdwin Ayub
Sarah, a former mixed martial arts champion in Austria, knows she needs to make a new start. While her sister urges her to start a business, she jumps at an unexpected offer to go to Jordan to train three teenage daughters of a dazzlingly rich family living in an isolated, fiercely guarded mansion. Sarah soon sees that the girls don’t want to train, but have little else in their closeted lives: no internet allowed, no friends and only rare outings to the mall, where they are closely watched, for entertainment. The house, moreover, seems to hold its own secrets; why is Sarah forbidden to go upstairs? Director Ayub maintains the tension of a thriller in this story of life in a golden cage.
K-POPS
Director: Anderson .Paak
Eight-time Grammy winner Anderson .Paak makes his film debut with the story of a washed-up drummer whose life turns around when he meets his teenage son for the first time. Paak himself plays the father BJ, who is still holding out in middle age for rock’n’roll stardom; his real-life son Soul Rasheed plays the fictional Tae Young, whose mother Yeji is Korean. When BJ gets an unexpected gig on a Korean talent show, he discovers Tae Young, a hotly-tipped contestant. Eager to make up for lost parenting time, BJ becomes the boy’s mentor – but the truth is that he needs help to grow up himself. Riffing off their real family relationships, .Paak’s comedy is an instant winner full of charm and K-Pop fandom.