Will Smith and Norman Lear will be honored at the first-ever All Def Movie Awards with the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Vanguard Award, respectively.
The All Def Movie Awards hail from Russell Simmons‘ emerging video programming brand All Def Digital, which is hosting the live event on Feb. 24 — just days before the Oscars.
Tony Rock will host the ceremony, where Best Picture nominees include “Beasts of No Nation,” “Chi-Raq,” “Concussion,” “Creed,” “Dope” and “Straight Outta Compton” — all of which were snubbed in the major categories at the Oscars aside from “Creed” star Sylvester Stallone and the four white writers behind “Straight Outta Compton.”
Members of the public can vote online for two categories in the All Def Movie Awards (Best Picture and Most Quoted Movie) through midnight on Feb. 23 by simply clicking here.
“Will Smith has broken all barriers in music, film, theater and television. As a Grammy Award-winner, television star and the most accomplished and bankable film artist in the world, Will uses his powerful voice for social change. The All Def Movie Awards are enormously proud to honor Will Smith and his incredible body of work with our first Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Russell Simmons, founder and chairman of All Def Digital.
Lear will receive the Vanguard Award for his enduring contributions to entertainment that helped foster an essential dialogue about race and race relations.
“As a writer, director, producer and author, Norman has been a true champion for people of color. He shined a light on the marginalized in our society and made us laugh. He wrote aspirational and inspirational roles for minorities. He gave us dignity with ‘Good Times.’ He gave the working class a voice in ‘Sanford and Son.’ And most important to me, with ‘The Jeffersons,’ he showed us that a black man could be rich and successful and do the unthinkable: he could curse at the white man while standing up for what he believes in,” Simmons added.
Smith is a two-time Oscar nominee thanks to his performances in “Ali” and “The Pursuit of Happyness.” He next stars as Deadshot in David Ayer‘s “Suicide Squad,” which hits theaters on Aug. 5. Smith most recently starred in “Concussion” as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the brilliant forensic neuropathologist who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, in a professional football player and fought for the truth to be known.
Lear began his television writing career in 1950, and went on to produce the iconic series “All in the Family,” which in its nine seasons on CBS, won four Emmy Awards for Best Comedy series and a Peabody Award in 1977. The series was followed by a succession of other hits on television, including “Maude,” “Sanford and Son,” “Good Times,” “The Jeffersons,” “One Day at a Time” and “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.” Lear founded People For the American Way, a nonprofit organization designed to defend Bill of Rights guarantees and monitor violations of constitutional freedoms. Additionally, he formed other nonprofits, including the Business Enterprise Trust (1989-2000), which spotlighted exemplary social innovations in American business; the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication (2000-present), a multidisciplinary research and public policy center dedicated to exploring the convergence of entertainment, commerce and society; and with his wife, Lyn, and Alan and Cindy Horn, co-founded the Environmental Media Association (1989-present).
The All Def Movie Awards will be programmed as part of All Def Comedy Live, and the show will also feature a consistent stream of video content before, during and after the show on all of ADD’s social channels, including Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat and Periscope.