Kevin D. Kinsey

Fences is an American drama film directed by Denzel Washington and written by August Wilson, based on his Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same name. Paramount Pictures has offered up a first look at what could be one of the studio’s biggest awards contenders of the year. “Fences” is a feature film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning stage play by August Wilson which takes place in the 1950s and revolves around an African-American former baseball star who now works as a trash collector, crossing the race barrier to serve as a driver, not just a barrel lifter. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis starred in the 2010 revival of the play, earning Tony Awards for their performances, and they reprise their roles in the feature film adaptation, which sees Washington stepping into the director’s chair of a drama that tackles American race relations head on.

Here Washington is working from a screenplay by the late August Wilson and given that the performances from Washington and Davis were highly lauded on Broadway, it stands to reason that they’d deliver the goods once again on the big screen, and indeed has earned a Oscar nomination for Viola Davis in the category of Best Supporting Actress and Denzel Washington for Best Actor.  The movie has also landed a nomination as Best Picture in an amazing year of films which brings a wide range of diversity to Hollywood, which has added a footnote of excellence and achievement for the cast and distinguished play-writer August Wilson for this wonderful film adaptation of his successful play. With the recent wins of the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Outstanding Performance by a Male in a Leading Role for Denzel Washington and Viola Davis for Outstanding Performance by a Female in a Supporting Role has significantly increased both to likely win the Oscar and earn further recognition for their outstanding work as Actors by the Academy Awards.

August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Each work in the series is set in a different decade, and depicts comic and tragic aspects of the African- American experience in the 20th century.