Tyler Perry may be Toronto’s first screenwriter-director to present his film A Jazzman’s Blues Sunday before hitting Netflix in September 23, but he’s not new to TIFF. Thirteen years ago, Perry attended the event with Precious, and he and Oprah Oprah Winfrey serves as executive producer.
Directed by Lee Daniels, starring Gabriel Sidibe, Monique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz , Precious adapted from Sapphire’s novel Push, which tells about a 16 year-old (Sidibe) is the story of her father being twice conceived and seeking a fresh start at a new school. The film premiered at Sundance and won an Audience Award and a Jury Award for Drama, as well as a special Jury Award for Mo’Nique as Precious’s Abusing Mother. Lionsgate executives called Perry from Park City and asked him to be a producer.
“They brought it to me, I watched it, I called Oprah and said, ‘You have to watch this movie,’ she said, ‘I’ve Got it, I’ve had it for a month,'” Perry recalled THR. “Then we thought, ‘What can we do to make this movie appeal to audiences?'”
It won TIFF’s People’s Choice Award and won six Oscar nominations (including best picture), and won an adapted screenplay and Monique for supporting actress. Precious Consistent for those involved; Daniels and Monique publicly reconciled this year after a long feud, and the director gushed about the film’s ” It was God who worked through us both.”
