Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | 2018 |
Founder | |
Headquarters | United States |
Services |
Higher Ground Productions, also known simply as Higher Ground, is an American production company which was founded in 2018 by former United States President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
In May 2018, the Obamas launched Higher Ground Productions by signing a multi-year deal with Netflix to produce scripted and unscripted film and television projects, with the goal of the company to lift up diverse voices in the entertainment industry. [1] Michelle Obama stated "I have always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire us, to make us think differently about the world around us, and to help us open our minds and hearts to others." [1] In February 2019, Priya Swaminathan, Tonia Davis, and Qadriyyah “Q” Shamsid-Deen joined the company, with Swaminathan and Davis serving as co-heads and Shamsid-Deen serving as a creative executive. [2]
On June 6, 2019, Spotify announced a partnership with Higher Ground to produce Spotify-exclusive podcasts. [3] The first podcast under the partnership, The Michelle Obama Podcast, premiered on July 29, 2020. [4]
The company's first film was American Factory , released in 2019. Netflix released Becoming a documentary following Michelle Obama on her book tour promoting her memoir of the same name. [5]
Higher Ground has multiple projects in development, including a feature film adaptation of Frederick Douglass's biography, a drama series set in the fashion scene of post-WWII New York City, and a scripted anthology series of the New York Times obituary column highlighting deaths of remarkable people not reported. [6]
In June 2022, it was announced that Higher Ground would be ending its partnership with Spotify, as it signed a multi-year, multi-million-dollar deal with Audible. [7]
In 2020, the company won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program for American Factory . [8] [9] [10]
Release date | Title | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
July 29, 2020 (premiere) | The Michelle Obama Podcast | Produced in exclusive partnership with Spotify. | |
February 22, 2021 (premiere) | Renegades: Born in the USA | Produced in exclusive partnership with Spotify. | |
January 12, 2022 (season premiere) | The Big Hit Show: Twilight | Produced in exclusive partnership with Spotify. | |
February 9, 2022 (season premiere) | The Big Hit Show: To Pimp a Butterfly | Produced in exclusive partnership with Spotify. |
The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actor is one of the awards given by the Broadcast Film Critics Association at their annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards for a performance in a motion picture. It was first presented in 1995 with the winners being a tie between Ed Harris for Apollo 13 and Kevin Spacey for The Usual Suspects. There were no official nominees until 2001, currently six nominees are usually presented.
The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award given out at the annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards. The awards are presented by the Critics Choice Association (CCA), and were first presented in 1995 with Mira Sorvino being the first recipient for her role in Mighty Aphrodite. There were no official nominees announced until 2001. There have been two ties in this category, and there are currently six nominees annually.
The Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Costume Design is one of the Critics' Choice Movie Awards given to people working in the film industry by the Critics Choice Association. It was first given out in 2009. Only three times has it not lined up with the winner of the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.
Danielle Brooks is an American actress. Her breakthrough role was as prison inmate Tasha "Taystee" Jefferson in the Netflix comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019).
Kristopher Bowers is an American composer, pianist and documentary director. He has composed scores for films, including Green Book, King Richard, The Color Purple, and The Wild Robot and television series, among them Bridgerton, Mrs. America, Dear White People, and When They See Us.
Dead to Me is an American black comedy-drama television series that stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini as two grieving women who bond during therapy. It was created by Liz Feldman and executive produced by Feldman, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Jessica Elbaum. The series premiered on May 3, 2019, on Netflix and received positive reviews. In June 2019, Netflix renewed the series for a second season which was released on May 8, 2020. At the 71st Primetime Emmy Awards, Applegate received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
American Factory is a 2019 American documentary film directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, about Chinese company Fuyao's factory in Moraine, a city near Dayton, Ohio, that occupies Moraine Assembly, a shuttered General Motors plant. The film had its festival premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. It is distributed by Netflix and is the first film acquired by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground Productions. It won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Kemp Powers is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director. He is best known for his play One Night in Miami and the 2020 film adaptation of the same name, as well as for co-directing the animated films Soul (2020) and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). His screenplay for One Night in Miami... earned him a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination at the 93rd Academy Awards, while his work on Soul made him the first African-American to co-direct a Disney animated feature.
Rustin is a 2023 American biographical drama film directed by George C. Wolfe, from a screenplay by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black, and a story by Breece about the life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Produced by Barack and Michelle Obama's production company Higher Ground, the film stars Colman Domingo in the title role, alongside Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, Gus Halper, CCH Pounder, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Johnny Ramey, Michael Potts, Jeffrey Wright, and Audra McDonald. It is based on the true story of Rustin, who helped Martin Luther King Jr. and others organize the 1963 March on Washington.
Descendant is a 2022 American historical documentary film directed by Margaret Brown, chronicling the story behind Africatown in Alabama, and the descendants of the last known enslaved Africans brought to the United States aboard the Clotilda. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it was picked up for wider distribution by Higher Ground Productions and Netflix. It received a theatrical release on October 21, 2022 and was available to stream on Netflix that day as well.
American Symphony is a 2023 American biographical documentary film, written, shot, and edited by Matthew Heineman. It explores a year in the life of musician Jon Batiste, his music career, and his wife's struggle with leukemia.