RaMell Ross | |
---|---|
Born | 1982 (age 42–43) |
Education | |
Occupation(s) | Film director, photographer, professor |
Notable work | Nickel Boys (2024) |
Website | http://www.ramellross.com |
RaMell Ross is an American filmmaker, photographer, academic, and writer. His directorial debut, Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018), earned him a Peabody Award, and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. Ross directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the 2024 film adaptation of the novel The Nickel Boys (2019), for which he won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director, [1] [2] [3] and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Ross was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and raised in Fairfax, Virginia, where he attended Lake Braddock Secondary School. [4] [5]
In 2005, Ross graduated from Georgetown University, where he majored in English and sociology and played on the Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team. [1] [5] He later earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design. [5]
In 2006, Ross moved to Ireland to work for Playing For Peace's Northern Ireland initiative. While in Ireland he played professional basketball for MDS Star of the Sea Belfast, a team in Ireland's SuperLeague North Division. It was here he would first get an interest in directing and video editing as he worked as an apprentice of the video editor for North Star Basketball. [6]
In 2009, Ross moved to Greensboro, Alabama for a position as a basketball coach and photography teacher. [7] These experiences inspired multiple collections of photographs and art installments inspired by Black life in the American South. [8]
Filmmaker Magazine named Ross among "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2015. That year, he was a Sundance Institute New Frontier Artist in Residence at the MIT Media Lab. [9] He joined faculty of the Brown Arts Initiative at Brown University in 2016, where he currently serves as an assistant professor of visual art. [10] Soon after, he was awarded a two-year Mellon Gateway Fellowship. [11]
Ross' directorial debut, Hale County This Morning, This Evening , an experimental documentary about Black life in Hale County, Alabama, premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. [12] He was awarded the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at the festival. The film went on to win a Peabody Award and in 2019 was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. [13]
Easter Snap, Ross' documentary short depicting five men preparing a hog to be butchered in a ritualistic fashion, debuted at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. [14] [1]
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art presented a retrospective of Ross' artwork, titled Spell, Time, Practice, American, Body: The Work of RaMell Ross from October 2021 to March 2022. A book of Ross' work titled Spell Time, Practice, American, Body was released in 2023. [8]
Nickel Boys , Ross' film adaptation of the Colson Whitehead novel The Nickel Boys , debuted at the Telluride Film Festival on August 30, 2024. [15] The film opened the 2024 New York Film Festival. [16]
Year | Title | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
2018 | Hale County This Morning, This Evening | — | [1] |
2019 | Easter Snap | Documentary short | [14] |
2024 | Nickel Boys | — | [16] |
Danielle Deadwyler is an American actress. She began her career as a theatre actress in Atlanta, Georgia. She then transitioned to film and television roles and made her screen debut in the 2012 drama film A Cross to Bear. Deadwyler appeared in the primetime soap opera The Haves and the Have Nots (2015–2017), the drama series P-Valley (2020), and the miniseries Station Eleven (2021–2022) and From Scratch (2022).
Joslyn Barnes is a film producer and writer. Known for Bamako (2006), The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011), Cemetery of Splendour (2015), White Sun (2016), Zama (2017), Strong Island (2017) for which she received an Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking and an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature nomination, and Hale County This Morning, This Evening (2018) for which she received an Oscar nomination again for Best Documentary Feature. Barnes also produced and co-wrote the 2024 drama Nickel Boys, along with co-writer and director RaMell Ross, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a 2018 American documentary film about the lives of black people in Hale County, Alabama. It is directed by RaMell Ross and produced by RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim, and is Ross's first nonfiction feature. The documentary is the winner of 2018 Sundance Film Festival award for U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Creative Vision, 2018 Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Cinema Eye Honors Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was released in theaters on September 14, 2018, later aired on television as part of the PBS series Independent Lens, and eventually won a 2020 Peabody Award.
The Nickel Boys is a 2019 novel by American novelist Colson Whitehead. It is based on the historic Dozier School, a reform school in Florida that operated for 111 years and was revealed as highly abusive. A university investigation found numerous unmarked graves for unrecorded deaths and a history into the late 20th century of emotional and physical abuse of students.
Payal Kapadia is an Indian filmmaker. In 2017, her short film Afternoon Clouds was the only Indian film selected for the 70th Cannes Film Festival. In 2021, she won the Golden Eye award for best documentary film at the 74th Cannes Film Festival for her debut feature A Night of Knowing Nothing.
Yuri Alexandrovich "Yura" Borisov is a Russian actor. He made his acting film debut in the crime drama Elena (2011). He portrayed Mikhail Kalashnikov in AK-47 (2020). He has also starred in films such as The Bull (2019), The Silver Skates (2020), Captain Volkonogov Escaped (2021), and Compartment No. 6 (2021). For his performance in Anora (2024), he received nominations for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, SAG Awards, BAFTAs and Academy Awards.
Nickel Boys is a 2024 American historical drama film based on the 2019 novel The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. It was directed by RaMell Ross, who co-wrote the screenplay with Joslyn Barnes, and stars Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson, alongside Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. The story follows two African-American boys, Elwood and Turner, who are sent to an abusive reform school in 1960s Florida. The film is inspired by the Dozier School for Boys, a now-closed Florida reform school notorious for its abusive treatment of students.
The Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Director is one of the annual Gotham Awards. It was established in 2024. RaMell Ross is the first winner of the award for Nickel Boys (2024).
The 90th New York Film Critics Circle Awards, honoring the best in film for 2024, were announced on December 3, 2024.
Brandon Wilson is an American actor. He had a supporting role in The Way Back (2020) and a leading role in Nickel Boys (2024). His breakout performance in the latter earned him a Gotham Award.
The 50th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, given by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), honoured the best in film for 2024. The awards were announced on December 8, 2023. Anora received the most awards with three wins, including Best Film, Best Lead Performance and Best Supporting Performance.
Jomo Fray is an American cinematographer. He is best known for his work on Nickel Boys (2024), for which he earned a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography. He is also known for his work on Port Authority (2019), Selah and the Spades (2020) and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023).
The 37th Chicago Film Critics Association Awards were presented to recognize the best in film of 2024. The nominations were announced on December 10, 2024. The Brutalist received the most nominations with nine, followed by The Substance with seven. Meanwhile, Anora, Nickel Boys and Wicked each received six nominations.
The 45th Boston Society of Film Critics Awards, honoring the best in filmmaking in 2024, were given on December 8, 2024. Unlike previous editions of the awards, runner-up standings were not announced.
The 28th Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, honouring the best films released in 2024, were announced on December 15, 2024.
The 59th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on January 4, 2025, honored the best in film for 2024.