Pam Grier Award Presentation

Join the Santa Fe International Film Festival on Saturday, October 17th for the Lifetime Achievement Award presentation to actress Pam Grier.

A powerhouse of talent and a pioneer for African American representation in Hollywood, Grier has captivated audiences for more than four decades. She is perhaps best known for her performances as the title character in Jack Hill’s exploitation action film, Foxy Brown (1974) where Grier’s powerful and triumphant physical presence offset subversive sex appeal, setting her apart from other women actors at the time. Nearly three decades later, she played the title character in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997), for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture.

Grier’s unforgettable breakthrough roles in Coffy (1973) and Foxy Brown (1974) centralized a powerful influence over American cinema, revolutionizing the way Black women were portrayed. She flipped the damsel-in-distress trope on its head by kicking butt and taking names in films that would pave the way for many black, female actors like Viola Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Teyana Taylor. The NAACP has nominated her for ten Image Awards.