From “The Tonight Show” to the Oscar stage. In his remarkable directorial debut, Ahmir Khalib “Questlove” Thompson won the Best Documentary Oscar for “Summer of Soul: …Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” at the 94th Academy Awards. Questlove took the Oscar along with fellow producers Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent, and David Dinerstein.
READ MORE: “Summer of Soul (Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)”: Questlove’s New “Black Woodstock” Doc Is Superb [Sundance Review]
Chronicling the long forgot 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival thanks to a treasure trove of footage, “Summer of Soul” first took the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. It also won Best Documentary from the National Board of Review and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, among other critics groups. The Searchlight Pictures and Hulu acquisition also won the equivalent honor at the BAFTA Awards, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the Gotham Awards.
The win is the first for both Searchlight and Hulu in this category. In fact, it’s the first Oscar in Hulu’s history.
Questlove has also won 5 Grammy Awards over the course of his career.
It should be noted this is also a major achievement for Dinerstein who went from the head of marketing in the early days of Fox Searchlight to co-founding the now-defunct Paramount Vantage to becoming an established film producer. It’s quite rare that anyone from the studio marketing side ends up winning an Academy Award.
“Summer of Soul” is available on Hulu and Disney Plus.