Fox Searchlight's 'Belle' Wins Two NAACP Image Awards
At the 46th Annual NAACP Image Awards on Friday, February 6, Fox Searchlight's Belle was named the year's Outstanding Independent Motion Picture, and Misan Sagay was recognized for writing the screenplay. The event celebrates the outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts (television, recording, literature, motion picture, writing, and directing), as well as those individuals or groups who promote social justice through their creative endeavors. Belle received five total nominations, including for Outstanding Motion Picture.
Set in the late 1700s, the film is inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a British admiral who was raised by her aristocratic aunt and uncle. Sagay told The Riveter that she wrote the film "to shine a light on issues that had relevance then and have relevance today."
Projects by other 21st Century Fox businesses received nominations, as well. Jamie Foxx and Zoe Saldana received acting nominations for Rio 2 and The Book of Life, respectively.
In the television categories, FOX comedies Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Mindy Project, as well as dramas Gotham, Sleepy Hollow, and Red Band Society received acting nominations, as did FX's American Horror Story: Freak Show and Twentieth Century Fox Television's Modern Family.
