Tyler Perry may be the first writer-director in Toronto to present his film Blues of a jazz man on Sunday before it hits Netflix on September 23, but he’s no TIFF newbie. Thirteen years ago, Perry attended the party with: preciouson which he and Oprah Winfrey served as executive producers.
Directed by Lee Daniels and starring Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz, precious was based on Sapphire .’s novel Push about a 16-year-old (Sidibe) who became pregnant twice by her father and is looking for a fresh start at a new school. The film first screened at Sundance, where it won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for Drama, plus a special jury award for Mo’Nique as a precious “abusive mother.” Lionsgate executives called Perry from Park City to ask him to come on board as a producer.
“They brought it to me and I looked at it and I called Oprah and said, ‘You have to watch this movie,’ and she said, ‘I’ve had it, I’ve had it for a month'” Perry recalled. THR. “Then we were like, ‘What can we do to get this movie to an audience?’ ”
It won the TIFF’s People’s Choice Award and scored six Oscar nominations (including Best Picture), with wins for Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actress for Mo’Nique. precious stays true to its name for those involved; Daniels and Mo’Nique publicly reconciled this year after a long feud, with the director gushing that the film was “God working through both of us”.