Roger Ross Williams signs with Cinetic Media
Oscar-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams has signed with Cinetic Media while developing Strange Arrivals with Demi Moore and Colman Domingo.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
2 min read
Roger Ross Williams has signed with Cinetic Media, Deadline reported, adding a new industry home for the Oscar, Emmy and Peabody-winning filmmaker behind Music By Prudence, Life, Animated and The Apollo.
Williams made Academy Awards history with Music By Prudence, becoming the first African-American director to win an Oscar, according to Deadline. His career has spanned directing, producing and writing across documentary and narrative projects.
Who is Roger Ross Williams?
Williams is a filmmaker whose honors include an Oscar, Emmys and a Peabody Award. Deadline reported that he has also received lifetime achievement honors from the International Documentary Association, the San Francisco Film Society and the Miami Film Festival, along with the Maverick Award from the Woodstock Film Festival.
He has also received an honorary doctorate from Lafayette College, according to Deadline.
His documentary credits cover a wide range of subjects. Life, Animated won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival, collected three Emmys and received an Academy Award nomination, Deadline reported.
Williams also directed God Loves Uganda, which was shortlisted for an Oscar, and The Apollo, which won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Documentary, according to Deadline.
His more recent nonfiction work includes Netflix’s Stamped From The Beginning, The 1619 Project, which won the Primetime Emmy for nonfiction series, and Apple TV+’s The Supermodels, Deadline reported.
What is Roger Ross Williams working on now?
Williams is currently developing Strange Arrivals, a narrative feature starring Oscar nominee Demi Moore and two-time Oscar nominee Colman Domingo, according to Deadline.
The project follows Williams’ move into narrative features with Cassandro, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was later released worldwide by Amazon Prime Video. The film starred Gael García Bernal as the title character, the “exotico” persona created by Saúl Armendáriz, a gay amateur wrestler from El Paso who rose to international fame, Deadline reported.
Williams also holds a leadership role within the film industry. Deadline reported that he currently serves on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Board of Governors, representing the documentary branch.
Cinetic Media’s signing of Williams puts the company alongside a filmmaker whose résumé stretches from Oscar-winning short work to Emmy-winning nonfiction series and star-led narrative features.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.