Keke Palmer, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor & Aaron Pierre

Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor loved a shock early birthday celebration on the 2025 American Black Movie Pageant (ABFF) Honors ceremony on Monday evening — full with a cake, glowing candles and the well-heeled crowd singing her “Completely happy Birthday” (the Stevie Marvel model, in fact).

Ellis-Taylor was among the many particular honorees on the awards present, feted not only for turning one other 12 months older, however for delivering one other 12 months filled with dazzling performances, together with in the very best image Oscar-nominated movie “Nickel Boys.” Although the highlight was on Elllis-Taylor, she appeared much less focused on accepting her well-deserved flowers than in doling them out to her fellow honorees.

“Keke Palmer made me well-known,” Ellis-Taylor declared as she took the stage on the SLS Resort in Beverly Hills to just accept ABFF’s Excellence within the Arts trophy from her “Origin” director Ava DuVernay.

A dozen years in the past, Ellis-Taylor and Palmer — who was honored with the Renaissance Award for her assorted profession accomplishments up to now — co-starred within the Lifetime TV film “Kidnapped: The Carlina White Story.” Based on Ellis-Taylor, Palmer and her mom Sharon Palmer fought to make sure that she had the chance to do meaty work that reached a large viewers.

“And I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since,” Ellis-Taylor mentioned. “As a result of it was the primary time I felt the road between who I used to be and who I performed merged.”

Ellis-Taylor additionally saluted Marla Gibbs, the night’s Hollywood Legacy award honoree, explaining that one can’t be honored “alongside” an icon like “The Jeffersons” and “227” alum, “as a result of [she] will all the time be within the distance — unreachable, unmatched. She was my understanding of what it was to be a comic. They’d Carol Burnett. We had Marla Gibbs.”

Then, she supplied phrases of affirmation to Rising Star award winner Aaron Pierre, explaining that she solely knew him by rumor, however that what she’d heard “portends a world-changer.”

She saved her last reward for Giancarlo Esposito, who picked up the night’s different Excellence within the Arts prize. “I used to be born an agitator, in all probability. However there was no definition to it, till I noticed you. I used to be given phrases to what was churning inside me,” Ellis-Taylor mentioned of watching Esposito in Spike Lee’s “Do the Proper Factor.”

His insightful and inciting quote (“How come you ain’t received no brothers on that wall?”) impressed her activism shifting ahead, because the movie opened her eyes to the structural inequities that must be addressed within the combat for equality. “This is the reason these messages of ‘one other seat on the desk’ is deaf to me. I don’t need to hear that. I’m not at no seat at no desk. I don’t need the seat or the desk. I would like the construction. I would like the land that the construction belongs,” Ellis-Taylor preached. “Why? As a result of it’s mine. … Thanks ABFF, since you are encouraging me to tear down that wall, to tear down that home and reclaim the land.”

Ellis-Taylor’s rousing speech may’ve been probably the most potent of an evening that felt extra church revival than awards present. In truth, the black tie gala kicked off with the gospel choir from Victory Bible Church in Pasadena, Calif., singing a rousing rendition of “The Finest Is But to Come,” by Donald Lawrence and The Tri-Metropolis Singers, to honor the traditionally Black communities affected by the L.A. wildfires.

The present, hosted by comic Zainab Johnson, was full of honest moments, like Anthony Mackie sharing the recommendation Esposito gave him, a child contemporary off the boat from New Orleans, about tips on how to be a profitable working actor, many years earlier than they have been Marvel co-stars; or Palmer discussing the significance of creators proudly owning their rightful share of their content material; or a 93-year-old Gibbs saying that she’s not performed but, and sharing her mantra: “Lengthy as you’re nonetheless right here and nonetheless respiratory, you’ve received one other shot.”

However the occasion was removed from a somber affair. Living proof, Pierre was performed onto the stage to just accept his award with the viral anthem, “Aaron. Pierre. That’s Mufasaaaa,” which was created by the crew of “The Jennifer Hudson Present” for his “Spirit Tunnel” entrance final December.