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Director: RaMell Ross  

Lead Cast: Ethan Herisse as Elwood; Brandon Wilson as Turner; Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Hattie 

Supporting Cast: Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechlinger, Jimmie Fails, Gralen Banks, Lucy Faust, Luke Tennie, Craig Tate, Bryan Gael Guzman 

Writers: RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes (Adapted from the novel by Colson Whitehead) 

Producers: Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, David Levine, Joslyn Barnes  

Genre: Historical Drama  

Language: English  

Date of Release: August 30, 2024 (Telluride Film Festival); December 13, 2024 (United States)  

Awards

  • 2025 Academy Awards  

  • Nominations: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Setting (Time & Place): The Florida Panhandle in the 1960s, New York in the 1980s 

Foreshadowing: An adolescent Elwood finds a penny and hesitates before picking it up, as the “tails” side of the coin is facing up, which signals bad luck. When he picks up the coin, he realizes that it has “tails” on both sides, foreshadowing the misfortune he will soon experience when he is sent to the Nickel School on false charges.   

Major Conflict: Elwood, a studious and social justice-minded Black teenager living in the Florida panhandle in the early 1960s, is charged as an accomplice to a crime that he did not commit and is sent to a reform school called Nickel Academy. There, he struggles to maintain his ideals and stay safe amid daily injustice and violence.  

Rising Action: At Nickel Academy, Elwood’s ideals, including his firm belief in justice, are repeatedly put to the test as staff exploit and abuse students, seemingly with impunity. He documents these injustices, including illegal activity by staff, in a notebook, though Turner, his closest friend at the school, warns him that he is putting himself in danger.  

Climax (Spoiler alert!): During an inspection of Nickel Academy, Turner offers to pass Elwood’s notebook to a group of school inspectors, despite his own misgivings. Instead of addressing the issues, however, the inspectors merely inform the school staff, who lock Turner in a roasting-hot sweatbox and plan to kill him. Turner breaks into the sweatbox and rescues Elwood. They are caught during their escape attempt, and Elwood is shot fatally while Turner escapes. 

Falling Action (Spoiler alert!): Turner informs Elwood’s grandmother, Hattie, of his death and later assumes Elwood’s identity. Decades later, he lives with a girlfriend in New York and runs a moving company. When investigations reveal numerous unmarked graves at Nickel, he decides to testify.  

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