“The leads were Black,” explains Palcy, whose permanent home is in Paris. “And certain [protagonists] were Black and female, like Bessie Coleman. They didn’t like that. Now everybody’s talking about Bessie Coleman.”

Palcy has long had her champions in Hollywood — she refers to Robert Redford, who mentored her at Sundance, as her “godfather.” And offers did come her way after the apartheid drama A Dry White Season, including a film about George Jackson, the Black Panther activist shot and killed during an escape attempt at San Quentin in 1971 — igniting the Attica Prison uprising.

“Meryl Streep was attached to star and wanted me to direct that film,” says Palcy. “But when I read the script, I was so disappointed.” The screenplay got fundamental messages about race and the American penal system flat wrong. “And I said, ‘No, not again.’ He was so upset, my agent, he didn’t talk to me for two months.” Streep never did make the film.

Frustrated with the studio system, Palcy chose instead to advise aspiring filmmakers “in Africa, in Haiti, in the Caribbean, even here in the U.S.” (Among her discoveries is Moly Kane, a rising Senegalese filmmaker with whom she produced a short film, landing it a 2011 Cannes premiere.) She delights in the strides being made by young BIPOC filmmakers.

This year, Hollywood is paying Palcy her due. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present her with an honorary award at the 13th Governors Awards on November 19.

She received word of her Oscar just one day after receiving France’s prestigious Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Medal of Honor. Honorary awards will also be presented to Diane Warren and Peter Weir, with Michael J. Fox receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

“This is a miracle,” Palcy says about the international recognition. Next up: Bessie Coleman awaits. “I mean, even if I didn’t have the Oscar, I’m ready for it,” she says. “I’m going to go back and I’m going to get that movie made.”

What follows is more from The Hollywood Reporter’s conversation with honorary Oscar winner Palcy:

Did you feel wistful seeing projects like Hidden Figures were getting made?

In 1991, I discovered the Bessie Coleman story. I spent years battling with the studio. Nobody wanted to touch it because it was a story of a Black woman, and it was a period piece and whatever. They didn’t want to do it. And I was so disappointed and so hurt.

A Dry White Season was very well received

I wanted to do Bessie Coleman. I wanted to do the movie about the famous Haitian leader Toussaint Louverture. I wanted to do a movie about the Second World War. I have a lot. And also I wanted to make a movie about a biracial love story set in Baltimore in 1864.

All the great stuff I wanted to do, I was told no, because all my leads were Black. And I said, “What did you expect? You called me to work with you. You love Sugar Cane Alley. When you talk about my first movie, you are crying and you wanted me to work with you. And I came. And now you don’t want my work, and you want to use my talent to do your work.” And I couldn’t stand that. I thought, “That’s so unfair.” So that’s why I decided, I said, “No, I have to go. I cannot do that.”

Actual projects, you said no?

They killed him in jail. And so that created, in Attica, that uprising. That’s what really created that. Meryl Streep wanted me to direct that film. My agent called me and said, “I’m going to send you that script.” When I read the script, I was so disappointed. And I said, “No, not again. Not again. Not again.” Meryl Streep is such a great actress. “Maybe she doesn’t know, really.” Maybe she thought that by saying yes to that story, she will help the cause. But she doesn’t know that the script was not a reflection of the reality. There were many examples like this. And I said, “No, no, no, stop.”

What was the turning point?

The real change for me happened after George Floyd was killed. And then with the whole movement, Black Lives Matter. I think that the people, they had a shock like I had. I never thought in my life that I will see white folks on their belly in the street next to Black folks with their arms like this: “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”

My God. And I say, “Right on!” I was so happy. And that gave me even more hope. All this provoked a change in the platform, too. The platform, that’s very important, because the platform, like Netflix and all the others, they started to realize that they cannot keep perpetuating what Hollywood created. And that’s how I saw the situation changing slowly, you see? And I said, “This is the time, this is for me; it’s the right time, the moment that I’ve been waiting for, and I’m ready now.”

Finally!

Finally. And I said, “Wow, what is happening to me? God is smiling at me now,” and everything. And I’m very happy, and I’m ready for it. I have some great projects.

So you’re going to keep directing?

If there is one thing I’m absolutely sure about, it’s that God put me on this earth for one reason: to make films.

It’s not Hollywood who kicked me out. Yes, they did. They silenced me just because they didn’t want my projects. And I found that so unfair, I withdrew. I said, “When the time will be right, I’ll come back.”

What does this Oscar mean to you now?

I wish that I could have the language to say. It’s the most magnificent distinction. Everybody wants to have an Oscar.