The Paul Robeson Student Awards

Gina Prince-Bythewood is a prolific director, producer, and screenwriter whose work includes the modern-day classics Love and Basketball, Disappearing Acts, and Beyond the Lights. She also served as the showrunner of Shots Fired, the Fox limited series about the aftermath of a police-involved shooting, starring Sanaa Lathan. In 2020, Prince-Bythewood helmed The Old Guard, an action movie about soldiers with unique powers starring Kiki Layne and Charlize Theron. It marks the first comic book movie adaptation directed by a Black woman. In 2022, she directed the blockbuster The Woman King, set in the 19th century about the women warriors from the Dahomey tribe.

Professor Emeritus Abraham “Abiyi” Ford was the founding Chair of the Department of Radio, Television and Film in Howard University’s School of Communications. A documentary filmmaker and two-time Fulbright scholar, Professor Ford’s approach to filmmaking and education was that of elevating the African, Caribbean and African American experiences. Ford was also Head of the MFA in Film Program, the only graduate film program at an HBCU. After retiring from Howard in 2006, Professor Ford returned to Ethiopia where at Addis Ababa University, he was instrumental in establishing the School of Journalism and Communication where he served as its founding Dean.

Arthur Jafa, a graduate of Howard University, is a director, Sundance award-winning cinematographer, video artist and cultural critic who was born in Mississippi in 1960. He was the producer and cinematographer for Daughters of the Dust (1992), the cinematographer for Crooklyn (1994), and also worked on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999). His 2014 film Dreams Are Colder Than Death premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival and the New York Film Festival and won the award for Best Feature Documentary at the Black Star Film Festival. Jafa's worked with fellow Howard University film alumnus Alan Ferguson on videos for Solange Knowles' 2016 album "A Seat at the Table." 

Stanley Nelson is one of the foremost chroniclers of the African American experience. A documentary director and producer, his films combine compelling narratives with deeply researched historical details, shining new light on both familiar and under-explored aspects of the American past. Nelson, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, received a Peabody Award for his body of work in 2016, along with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. His recent films include Attica (2021) shortlisted for a 2022 Academy Award, the NAACP Image Award-winning The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2018), and the Grammy-nominated and double Emmy Award-winning Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (2020).

Bradford Young studied film at Howard University, where he was influenced by Haile Gerima. He was director of photography on the feature films Pariah (2011), Restless City (2011), Middle of Nowhere (2012), Mother of George (2013) and Selma (2014). He has won Cinematography Awards at the Sundance Film Festival twice: in 2011, for his work on Pariah, and in 2013 for his work on both Mother of George and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. In 2017, Young became the first African American cinematographer to be nominated for an Academy Award, for his work on Arrival. His work on Arrival also earned him a Silver Frog award from Camerimage and nominations for BAFTA and American Society of Cinematographers awards.

Ava DuVernay's best-known works explore the African American experience. She has made history as the first African American woman to win Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival, be nominated for a Best Director Golden Globe, direct a film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, and direct a film with a budget over $100 million. As a filmmaker and producer, her work has made her the highest grossing Black woman director in American box office history. Her latest project, When They See Us, was nominated for 16 Emmy awards, making her and Beyoncé the first African American women in Primetime Emmy history to receive multiple nominations in their careers for directing. DuVernay graduated from the UCLA in 1995 with bachelor's degrees in English and African American studies.