Jo Addy's Awards Season Picks: Juneteenth

In the run-up to the Oscars, our Awards Season Picks video series highlights the writers, actors and directors who are expected to score big in April. Next up in the series is writer, director and producer Channing Godfrey Peoples

Following a successful awards trail – taking home accolades at both Sundance and SXSW Film Festivals, among others – Channing Godfrey Peoples talks to us about Miss Juneteenth, her debut feature film developed straight out of film school.

The time-travelling plot centres around a former beauty pageant queen-turned-single mum who pressures her daughter into entering the Miss Juneteenth pageant to realise her bygone dreams. It’s a realistic portrayal of poverty and family ambition, depicted through the eyes of a young Black female. "If I wasn’t a film-maker, I’d like to think I’d be doing something with kids. There’s a preservationist in me in the way I try to capture pieces of history through cinema," says Godfrey Peoples.

Watch the conversation between The Hollywood Reporter’s awards columnist Scott Feinberg and Godfrey Peoples about her inspirations, influences and impact as a film-maker.