Keke Palmer awarded at The Atlanta Film Festival: 'It feels like home'

The woman who once played the girl Akeelah is in remarkable company as of this weekend.

Keke Palmer — the 29-year-old actress, singer and new mother who made her breakthrough in the 2006 film Akeelah and the Bee — received The Atlanta Film Festival's Ossie Davis Award at its closing night presentation Saturday: an honor only director Spike Lee, the late actress Cicely Tyson and filmmakers John Sayles and Maggie Renzi have been received before.

"It feels like home and it reminds me of every reason as to why I do what I do,"  the onetime Atlanta resident told a packed Rialto Center for the Arts. "This means a lot to me...I'm very appreciative and grateful for this. I'm thankful to my family. Thankful to my friends and all the people that's here tonight to celebrate me up close and personal."

“Keke was a natural fit for the Ossie Davis Award being that she is an impressive multi-hyphenate artist, working at the highest level in all areas of entertainment," Christopher Escobar, The Atlanta Film Society's Executive Director added in a statement afterwards.

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Big Billy Clark, Keke Palmer, Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Christopher Escobar at The Atlanta Film Festival.

Credit: Jeff Lopez

And as of Saturday, the multi-hyphenate was able to make her bow as yet another professional qualifier: director. 

Before the award ceremony (which included recorded congratulations from Whoopi Goldberg, Dolly Parton and Samuel L. Jackson), Palmer unveiled her 40-minute short, Big Boss, a visual album of sorts based on what the Emmy Award winner says has been her real-life and often trying tenure in the music industry.

"I've been through a lot," she told the audience in a Q&A after the screening. "And I'm ready to just be that boss: own who I am and not be afraid to stand in those shoes."

"For many years I was always feeling like I couldn’t do that," she said. "Where people would, you know — specifically the [record] labels — they kind of really beat me down and made me feel like I had to be somebody else. Like I couldn’t be myself and kind of share what was unique to me.

"So doing it independently this time, I think [Atlanta Grammy-winning producer Christopher "Tricky" Stewart] was really pivotal in allowing me to kind of say, 'Well, OK, don’'t think about the way that I've always had to do it. Think about the way I CAN do it."

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Keke Palmer holds her 3-month-old son, Leodis Jackson, alongside his father, Darius Jackson at the Atlanta Film Festival on April 29, 2023.

Credit: Screenshot