Barry Jenkins

Jenkins debuted on the screen with his 2003 short My Josephine, but his first breakout film was Medicine for Melancholy, a low-budget independent feature, produced with Strike Anywhere films and released in 2008. The movie stars Wyatt Cenac and Tracey Heggins.[6] The film was well received by critics.[4]

After the success of his previous film, Jenkins wrote an epic for Focus Features about "Stevie Wonder and time travel" and an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel If Beale Street Could Talk, neither of which initially entered production.[4][7] He later worked as a carpenter and co-founded Strike Anywhere, an advertising company. In 2011, he wrote and directed Remigration, a sci-fi short film about gentrification. Jenkins became a writer for HBO's The Leftovers, about which he said, "I didn't get to do much."[4] In 2012, he received a United States Artists Fellowship grant.[8]

Jenkins directed and co-wrote, with Tarell Alvin McCraney, the 2016 drama Moonlight, his first feature film in eight years.[4] The film was shot in Miami and premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September 2016 to vast critical acclaim and awards buzz.[9][10] A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote: "Moonlight dwells on the dignity, beauty and terrible vulnerability of black bodies, on the existential and physical matter of black lives."[11] Variety wrote: "Barry Jenkins' vital portrait of a South Florida youth revisits the character at three stages in his life, offering rich insights into the contemporary African-American experience."[12] David Sims of The Atlantic wrote: "Like all great films, Moonlight is both specific and sweeping. It’s a story about identity—an intelligent, challenging work."[13]

The film won dozens of accolades, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture – Drama[14] and the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 89th Academy Awards.[15] Jenkins and McCraney also won Best Adapted Screenplay. Overall, the film received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Director.[16]

In 2017, Jenkins directed the fifth episode of the first volume of the Netflix original series Dear White People.[17]

In 2013, the same year he wrote Moonlight, he wrote a film adaptation of James Baldwin's novel If Beale Street Could Talk.[18] Production began in October 2017 with Annapurna Pictures, Pastel, and Plan B.[19] The film was released in December 2018 to critical acclaim. It garnered numerous accolades, including Best Supporting Actress wins for Regina King at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. Jenkins received an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Upcoming projects include a completed series based on Colson Whitehead's novel The Underground Railroad, a screenplay based on the life of Claressa Shields and a biographical film about choreographer Alvin Ailey he will direct.[20][21] Jenkins' television adaptation of the novel was initiated by Amazon Studios (and subsequently ordered to series in June 2018) after Jenkins' strong Oscar haul for Moonlight. The main cast of Underground Railroad will include Thuso Mbedu as Cora, with Chase W. Dillon as Homer and Aaron Pierre as Caesar. [22]

The next major film Jenkins is set to direct is a prequel to the CGI remake of Disney's The Lion King that primarily concerns the coming of age of Mufasa. [21]