Canadian film and TV director Clement Virgo has received the Reelworld Award of Excellence for a body of work that includes the films “Poor Boy’s Game” and “Lie With Me,” and the TV miniseries “The Book of Negroes,” which Virgo co-wrote as well as directed.
In a news release, Reelworld — which includes an annual film festival and a screen institute focused on making the industry more racially diverse — called Virgo “an inspiration to other Black, Indigenous, People of Colour creatives.”
Virgo’s work includes directing for TV series like “Empire,” “The Wire,” “The L Word” and “Greenleaf,” on which he served as executive producer alongside Oprah Winfrey. His debut feature film, “Rude,” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 and won a special jury citation at the Toronto International Film Festival.
He is currently developing the TV series “BLOOM” with writer Callie Khouri — about the barriers faced by women and people of colour in the post-Second World War, New York fashion industry — for Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company.
Virgo, in the same news release, called Reelworld “a pioneer of creating inclusion and access for Black, Indigenous and Canadian people of colour in the screen-based industries … As a young filmmaker, Reelworld was a vital supporter of my work and will be for the next generations of screen-based artists.”