The Marlon Riggs Award is a category of the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards program named after Black gay filmmaker, educator, poet, and activist Marlon Riggs and is awarded to "Bay Area filmmaker(s) or individual(s) who represents courage and innovation in the world of cinema." [1]
Established in 2003 by the San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle, the first winner of the Marlon Riggs Award was filmmaker Sam Green for his Academy Award nominated film, The Weather Underground .
"For being such a Bay Area force and being a beacon of creativity, inspiration and expression. His last film attests to his versatility and his deft comedic hand. It's been quite a year for the San Francisco native. First, he transformed his 2021 art installation, Attack! Decay! Release!, into a moving, raucous multimedia extravaganza melding a feature film with live performance. Then, he premiered his latest feature, The Secret Art of Human Flight, at Tribeca, and toured with it on the festival circuit through the rest of year, collecting awards along the way. His first film not made from his own script, it never the less continues his ongoing exploration of the ties that bind." [2]
"The musician-turned-filmmaker made one of the most distinctive debut features of 2018: the crazy, shot-in-Oakland Sorry to Bother You . The Oakland resident's influence extends throughout the Bay Area and beyond. His film generated big buzz at the Sundance Film Festival, where it debuted this year, and he's developing a new TV series."
"In recognition of for its work in the preservation and dissemination of endangered, culturally significant films."
"In recognition of his two decades of film programming, his revival of rare archival and independent titles, and his role in the renewed popularity of film noir and pre-Production Code features"