
*Jussie Smollett debuted a new feature film at the American Black Film Festival, which was held in Miami Beach on June 14-18.
Smollett shared details about his second feature during ABFF’s Queer Lens Brunch with GLAAD. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project titled The Lost Holliday was an official festival selection that the actor co-wrote, produced and directed. Smollett stars in the film “as a man whose husband is killed just as the couple was adopting their daughter; he must also contend with the mother-in-law he never met, played by Vivica A. Fox,” per THR.
“It means a great deal to have the love and support of my queer Black community and equally to have the love and support of the Black community as a whole,” Smollett said during the panel discussion.
The former Empire star also spoke about Black queer representation. “There are so many other things on the opposite side that are intentionally trying to devalue us so we must be intentional with our Blackness; we must be intentional with our queerness; we must be intentional with our Black queerness,” he said.
Smollett continues to appeal a jail sentence following his conviction on multiple felonies for staging a racist, homophobic attack on himself in 2019. During the panel discussion he said, “Sometimes you just gotta bite the bullet and let everybody think that you’re crazy, that you’re shady, that you’re a fraud, whatever they’re going to think. And then they’ll figure it out. They’ll figure it out because I can’t sit here forever trying to explain.”

Meanwhile, we reported earlier that a new program celebrating the careers of extraordinary Black artists kicked off this year with Retrospective: Celebrating the Legacy of Denzel Washington program. On the festival’s closing day, the actor hinted at a break from acting in the near future.
“The things that are going on for me professionally behind the camera are as important to me now as in front of the camera. I think there’s less and less time I’ll be spending in front of the camera,” Washington said, per THR.
Denzel also called hit up his wife on Facetime during the conversation — watch the moment here.
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