A Thousand and One’s Frustrating Awards Journey: “We’re Not Even Given a Shot”

A Thousand and One’s writer-director, A.V. Rockwell, and the film’s star, Teyana Taylor, have both gotten used to a particular, puzzling refrain on the awards trail these past few months. “Oh, yeah, so proud of you!” industry insiders and Oscar voters tell them. “Oh, my God, I can’t wait to see the movie!” This, for a film that won the top award at Sundance almost a full year ago and has been streaming for several months. “It can be very disheartening and draining because it’s like we’re not even given a shot,” Rockwell tells Vanity Fair. “Even with all the love that’s out there, I think people are kind of set in only certain movies, or only certain filmmakers, getting a chance to be a part of certain conversations.”

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We’re speaking during the tight window in which Oscar nominations are formally voted on, a period that includes the long MLK Day weekend. Despite being a critically acclaimed breakout distributed by an awards-friendly company (Focus Features, Universal’s specialty arm), A Thousand and One has struggled to gain traction. Taylor’s ferocious lead performance and Rockwell’s heartrending script are particularly worthy, but they’ve gone underrecognized by everyone from critics groups to major precursors. The topic of independent films made by and starring Black artists getting the short shrift has made headlines of late, with Ava DuVernay openly discussing the difficult process of getting voters to even see her latest film, Origin. “People just have such a bias, and have such an expectation—or lack of expectation,” Rockwell says.

Still, Rockwell has carved out a hard-fought place this season, winning the Gotham Award for breakthrough director and being nominated for the DGA’s first-time-feature-director award. The filmmaker began work on her debut feature way back in 2018, with support notably coming from Sundance Institute founding director and recent Governors Awards honoree Michelle Satter. The Park City festival premiered the movie to great fanfare five years later. It follows a hairdresser and convicted thief, Inez (Taylor), who takes her son, Terry, out of the foster system to live with her in secret. An ode to the Harlem of the ’90s and early 2000s, and a sweeping portrait of parental love versus broken institutions, the film showcases Rockwell’s distinctive gifts behind the camera, from her striking eye to her feel for dreamy realism. It also reintroduces music star Taylor in a major screen performance.

After winning Sundance’s grand jury prize (in the US Dramatic competition), the movie enjoyed strong reviews out of its March theatrical release, and it’s impressively hummed along ever since—as best as it can. But Rockwell never fully felt the love from the broader cinema community: “It was incredible that we came out of Sundance on the high that we did, but I’m not convinced that people, including critics, really gave our movie a chance just in watching it.”

Coming full circle from Sundance to this final round of campaigning, then, has been especially bittersweet for Rockwell, capping a long journey of what she calls “highs and lows.” Her last big stop on the trail was the Governors Awards, where Satter was honored by the likes of fellow Sundance Institute discoveries Ryan Coogler and Chloé Zhao—a heartbreaking occasion following the recent killing of Satter’s son Michael Latt, who was a close friend of Rockwell’s. Court records indicate that Jameelah Michl, the woman charged with murdering Latt, had stalked Rockwell following her appearance as an extra in A Thousand and One. Police say Michl indirectly acted on threats made to Rockwell in her targeting of Latt at his home.

“It’s a moment that I’ve been looking forward to for a very long time, seeing Michelle celebrated and recognized—not only as someone who feels such a deep level of gratitude for the way that she has supported me and my journey as a filmmaker, but [because of] what she’s done for the landscape overall,” Rockwell says of the Governors celebration. “It was very difficult to not have Michael there to share that moment, because it’s something that me and him talked about a lot—how excited we were to celebrate his mother. Beyond that, it’s not a situation that I feel like I’m ready to talk about right now, but I’m doing okay.”

Regardless of A Thousand and One’s overall performance in awards season, the movie has allowed Rockwell into Hollywood’s more selective rooms, and a bright directorial future appears on the horizon. Her relationship to the film, imbued with her own memories and complex nostalgia for a particular time in New York, has changed as it’s been given over more to audiences. She laughs as she admits, “I can’t watch it now,” explaining, “I remember when I was still in film school, filmmakers would come in and they would talk about the same thing. I didn’t get it then—but I definitely get it now, because it can be painful in some way [to revisit]. Even when I look at the movie poster, which I have up in my home, it tells me a different story than what it tells people when they look at it now. And that’s okay.”

Teyana Taylor, you could say, is in a different space. She is up for a Spirit Award for lead performance and just took home the National Board of Review prize for breakthrough acting. She’s feeling gratified after putting her all into a part that’s shown her in a completely new light following her retirement from music. “Even though it was an audition, I felt like it was mine to lose,” she says of when she first landed the part. “What this movie has done for me as an actor was everything that I wanted. I knew that this was the moment that I was going to really be able to get my rocks off and people would actually see me and hear me.” In regard to rewatching the film—which she has done multiple times—she adds, “It is kind of crazy to watch it now and just recall where I was in life. It’s tears of joy, tears of knowing that you made it through whatever was happening in that moment.”

For those who continue to discover A Thousand and One, the movie still provokes conversation, particularly with its twist ending—which on the surface complicates the dynamic between Inez and her son as we’ve understood it. Rockwell has felt invigorated by that dialogue, particularly noticing those who really get the meaning behind the reveal. “People that have come out of the foster-care system or anybody who’s experienced being a part of a chosen family in that way, they connect to the choice that she made in a way that is just so profound,” the director says. “That’s something that I think about and feel proud of: It’s a movie that they identify with, especially once the twist comes out.”

Speaking together over Zoom now, Taylor and Rockwell go back to the deep trust that developed between them over the course of making A Thousand and One. It’s clear in the discussion between them that they both have a different relationship to the film now. Listening to Taylor, though, you can see how she’ll forge ahead as an actor based on this experience: “She made me feel extremely safe, and it was about being there for one another—to see this Black woman be so amazing and in control of the whole set, and hold her own.” For Rockwell, Taylor’s performance came out of a faith in the vision for the film: “ I really pushed her to strip herself—especially as somebody who already has a brand, who already has an image—to totally immerse into this character.”

Coming off such a creatively successful first movie, one that’s taught Rockwell about the power of industry success and the obstacles certain artists still face, where does she go from here? “There’s a box that people try to put you in when you’re either a woman or a filmmaker of color, and so I’m excited to just continue breaking down those walls as well as breaking barriers,” she says. “I have so much to look forward to. The only way is up.”