Stars of the movie David Oyelowo, Common and Carmen Ejogo were also named as the winners of outstanding actor, supporting actor and supporting actress in a motion picture respectively.
- Feb 7, 2015
AceShowbiz - "Selma" was announced as the big winner at the 46th Annual NAACP Image Awards on Friday, February 6 in Pasadena, California. The drama took home Outstanding Motion Picture Award presented by Will Smith.
The drama, which covered the story of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historic struggle to secure voting rights for all people, also took home some other awards including Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for David Oyelowo, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for Common and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Carmen Ejogo.
"Selma" director Ava DuVernay took the stage to introduce a touching montage relating to some tragic events including the controversial deaths of Eric Garner and Mike Brown. "It was 60 years ago that Emma Till was murdered for the crime of being black," Ava told the audience, "The loss of this black life activated a new energy and mobilized the civil rights movement. Since then we have endured many moments of injustice and inhumanity, of violence against our people. It happened to Jimmy Lee Jackson in 1965, to Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis in 2012, to Eric Garner, and Mike Brown just last year."
She continued, "It happens every single day. The indignities and the humiliations, the emotional violence, and the physical violations, the death. And it has got to end. But how? Dr. King believed that the cure was love. The cure against disease, of racism and oppression, love. That out of pain can come hope. Out of anger can come change. Out of despair can come community. People of every color are now committed to the idea that black lives matter. People of all colors now know that we shall overcome. And so we must remain focused. We must remain diligent. And in order to triumph, we must remain clear about what's really going on."
Hosted by Anthony Anderson, the NAACP honored Taraji P. Henson with its Entertainer of the Year Award. Taraji also won Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture Award for her role in "No Good Deed".
List of Winners of 2015 NAACP Image Awards in Motion Picture: