After months of speculation, Apple has confirmed it is releasing the Will Smith runaway slave thriller Emancipation and has set a December 2 theatrical release followed by the global platform debut one week later – right in the awards season corridor.
Apple sources had not returned calls at time of writing to discuss potential awards plans. It is being spoken of as possibly director-executive producer Antoine Fuqua’s (Training Day, The Equalizer franchise, The Magnificent Seven) best work and is expected to feature a stirring lead performance by Smith. See the first trailer below.
However Smith remains a challenge for the company as it moves forward with a release, buoyed by Saturday’s (October 1) well-received first public screening hosted in Washington DC with civil rights group NAACP, when Fuqua and Smith were in attendance.
Smith is currently serving a 10-year ban handed down by the Academy days after he resigned his membership following his notorious on-stage slap of presenter Chris Rock and an expletive-filled tirade at the 94th Academy Awards. Later that evening he won the best lead actor Oscar for King Richard.
Apple may focus a campaign for Emancipation at the very least on best picture, Fuqua and crafts. Despite initially going quiet on the film after the Smith Oscars debacle, the company that backed last March’s best picture Oscar winner Coda will be eager to promote an awards season heavyweight contender given the composition of its awards slate.
It emerged a while ago that Martin Scorsese’s The Killers Of The Flower Moon will launch in 2023, with a Cannes world premiere berth looking likely. Meanwhile Peter Farrelly’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever received a lacklustre reception in Toronto, and Sundance acquisition Cha Cha Real Smooth is regarded by industry sources as too small to compete for Oscars.
Apple awards planners must now decide how to position Smith and how he might support the film regardless of whether they push him in the lead actor category. The Academy ban does not preclude him from entering an awards race, although he is not allowed to attend – in person or virtually – any Academy events or programmes until April 2032.
In Emancipation Smith plays Peter, a man who escapes from slavery by relying on his wits, faith and love for his family as he evades hunters and negotiates the swamps of Louisiana on his quest for freedom.
The film is inspired by the 1863 photos of “Whipped Peter” taken during a Union Army medical examination that first appeared in Harper’s Weekly. One image known as “The Scourged Back” shows Peter’s bare back mutilated by a whipping delivered by his enslavers, which eventually contributed to growing public opposition to slavery.
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