‘With my camera I don’t shoot, I heal’: director Euzhan Palcy receives honorary Oscar

Sidelined for decades by a film industry that refused to fund films starring Black actors, director Euzhan Palcy made a triumphant return to Hollywood on Saturday, accepting an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement at the Academy’s Governors awards.

Palcy, the first Black woman to direct a film for a major Hollywood studio, was introduced by Viola Davis and praised by Ava DuVernay. She addressed a film industry that had finally accepted that, as she put it: “Black and female is bankable.”