Lupita Nyong'o and Mati Diop Win at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards

Yesterday, the New York Film Critics Circle announced its full list of this year's winners. According to Deadline, Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o took home the "Best Lead Actress" award for her phenomenal role in the Jordan Peele horror film Us while Senegalese-French filmmaker Mati Diop's Atlantics won in the "Best First Film" category.

The Golden Globe nominations are set to be announced next Monday and while nothing is certain, Nyong'o's recent win is definitely a nod in the right direction. While horror films generally don't receive much attention at major awards shows, Peele's Get Out and more recently Us, are definitely changing that narrative.

It's been a spectacular year for Nyong'o across the board. She's set to produce the film adaptation of Trevor Noah's best-selling memoir Born a Crime, in which she'll also play the role of Noah's mother Patricia. If that weren't enough, she's set to star in an upcoming sci-fi comedy that's supposedly a cross between Men in Black and Miss Congeniality, although the details are still scarce. Nyong'o recently published her children's book Sulweand has started numerous conversations around being dark-skinned and colorism in the Black community.

Equally important is Diop, the Senegalese-French filmmaker behind the feature film Atlantics,a "ghost love story" centering themes of migration. The film was picked up by Netflix and won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, making Diop the first Black woman to win an award at the festival. Senegal then submitted the film as its entry for "Best International Film" at the Oscars—another tremendous honor for the talented filmmaker.