On Feb. 14 Academy Award-nominated actor Colman Domingo was presented with the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s (SBIFF) Montecito Award. Moderated by SBIFF’s own Roger Durling, the emotional and riveting evening will go down as one of the festival’s best events.

Domingo has been in many award-winning movies, including his most recent, Sing Sing, as well as The Color Purple, Selma, and Rustin. He is an accomplished playwright, director, and producer as well, and has played parts in TV shows such as Euphoria, Fear of the Walking Dead, and The Madness.  

On the red carpet, Domingo spoke about being “more alike than unalike” when asked about the importance of his castmate’s backgrounds in Sing Sing. The film – starring mostly formerly incarcerated people like Academy Award-nominated Clarence Maclin – sheds light on the true story about a man who was wrongly incarcerated and finds hope in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at the prison. 

In Domingo’s interview with Durling, while talking about his character “mister” in The Color Purple he said, “It’s easy for anyone to think of mister just as a villain and as an abuser, but for me I thought what’s complicated is to get to the heart of an abuser and find out why hurt people hurt people.”  Displaying a theme of valuing the expression and vulnerability of men throughout the evening, both Domingo and Durling were emotional as they celebrated Domingo’s contributions to the cinema landscape.