Charlize Theron is a South African and American actress and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actresses, she is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award. In 2016, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and depending upon the festival's focus, can include International and Domestic releases. Some film festivals focus on a specific filmmaker, genre of film, or subject matter. Several film festivals focus solely on presenting short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are typically annual events. Some film historians, including Jerry Beck, do not consider film festivals as official releases of the film.
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff and produced by Don Hahn, from a screenplay written by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton. The film features an ensemble voice cast that includes Matthew Broderick, Moira Kelly, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, Rowan Atkinson, and Robert Guillaume. Its original songs were written by composer Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, with a score by Hans Zimmer. Inspired by African wildlife, the story is modelled primarily on William Shakespeare's stage play Hamlet with some influence from the Biblical stories of Joseph and Moses, and follows a young heir apparent who is forced to flee after his uncle kills his father and usurps the throne. After growing up in exile, the rightful king returns to challenge the usurper and end his tyrannical rule over the kingdom.
Lilakoi Moon, known professionally as Lisa Bonet, is an American actress. She portrayed Denise Huxtable on the sitcom The Cosby Show (1984–1992), for which she earned widespread acclaim and a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1986; she reprised the role of Denise in the spinoff series A Different World (1987–1993).
Athol Fugard OIS HonFRSL is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apartheid. Some of these have also been adapted for film.
Winston Ntshona was a South African playwright and actor. He won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1975.
Bonisile John Kani, OIS, is a South African actor, author, director and playwright. He is known for portraying T'Chaka in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), Rafiki in The Lion King (2019) and Colonel Ulenga in the Netflix film Murder Mystery (2019).
HuffPost is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers politics, business, entertainment, environment, technology, popular media, lifestyle, culture, comedy, healthy eating, young women's interests, and local news featuring columnists. It was created to provide a progressive alternative to conservative news websites such as the Drudge Report. The site contains its own content and user-generated content via video blogging, audio, and photo. In 2012, the website became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Lisa Rani Ray is a Canadian actress. She began her modelling career in India in the early 1990s, appearing for leading Indian brands like Bombay Dyeing and Lakmé. She made her acting debut in 1994 in the film Hanste Khelte. Through her acting career, Ray has demonstrated a penchant for issue-oriented portrayals, most notably in the 2005 Oscar-nominated Canadian film Water and the award-winning South African feature The World Unseen, described by a reviewer as "one of the best-conceived queer films of the past year."
Nicole Blonsky is an American actress, singer, dancer, and internet personality. She is known for playing Tracy Turnblad in the film Hairspray (2007), for which she won two Critics' Choice Awards and received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Octavia Lenora Spencer is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and a Golden Globe Award, and is the first black actress to receive two consecutive Oscar nominations.
Lydia Frances Polgreen is an American journalist. She is best known for having been the editor-in-chief of HuffPost. She also spent about one year between 2021 and 2022 as the head of content for Gimlet Media. Prior to that she was editorial director of NYT Global at The New York Times, and the West Africa bureau chief for the same publication, based in Dakar, Senegal, from 2005 to 2009. She also reported from India. She spent much of her early career in Johannesburg, South Africa where she was The New York Times South African Bureau Chief as well. In 2022, after leaving Gimlet, she returned to The New York Times as an opinion columnist.
Atandwa Kani is a South African actor. He is the son of actor John Kani.
James Earl Jones is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances on stage and screen, and "one of the greatest actors in American history". His deep voice has been praised as a "a stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas" to his projects. Over his career, he has received three Tony Awards, two Emmy Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985. He was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009 and the Honorary Academy Award in 2011.
Sarafina! is a 1992 musical drama film based on Mbongeni Ngema's 1987 musical of the same name. The film was directed by Darrell Roodt and written by Ngema and William Nicholson, and stars Leleti Khumalo, Miriam Makeba, John Kani, Ngema, and Whoopi Goldberg; Khumalo reprises her role from the stage performance.
Thomas McKay Martin Jr., known professionally as T. J. Martin, is an American filmmaker. Martin's film Undefeated (2011), for which he was co-director, co-editor, and co-cinematographer, won the 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, making Martin the first film director of African-American descent to win an Academy Award for a feature-length film.
Whitewashing is a casting practice in the film industry in which white actors are cast in non-white roles. As defined by Merriam-Webster, to whitewash is "to alter...in a way that favors, features, or caters to white people: such as...casting a white performer in a role based on a nonwhite person or fictional character." According to the BBC, films in which white actors have played other races include all genres. African-American roles and roles of Asian descent have been whitewashed, as well as characters from the ancient world in the genre of classical and mythological films.
The Lion King is a 2019 American musical drama film directed by Jon Favreau, written by Jeff Nathanson, and produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Fairview Entertainment. It is a photorealistic animated remake of Disney's traditionally animated 1994 film The Lion King. The film stars the voices of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, Florence Kasumba, Eric André, Keegan-Michael Key, JD McCrary, Shahadi Wright Joseph, with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, and James Earl Jones. The plot follows Simba, a young lion who must embrace his role as the rightful king of his homeland following the murder of his father, Mufasa, at the hands of his uncle, Scar.
Afterlife of the Party is a 2021 American supernatural comedy film directed by Stephen Herek and written by Carrie Freedle. The film stars Victoria Justice as Cassie and Midori Francis as Lisa, two friends who experience challenges in their relationship upon reaching adulthood. The film also stars Timothy Renouf, Adam Garcia, Gloria Garcia and Spencer Sutherland.
Seal Team is a 2021 South African animated action comedy film co-directed by Greig Cameron and Kane Croudace, produced by Triggerfish Animation Studios and Cinema Management Group oversees worldwide distribution. The film stars the voices of J. K. Simmons, Jessie T. Usher, Matthew Rhys, Patrick Warburton, Kristen Schaal, Sharlto Copley, John Kani, Dolph Lundgren, and Seal. It tells the story of a group of misfit Cape Fur Seals who come together to fight a gang of ruthless sharks.
