“It’s an 8-year journey of young girls showing up to tell you their stories, their vulnerability, and they’re girls who have changed my life,” Patton said in her speech. “I hope that if you have not seen Daughters that your perspective will change, that your life would change, and that you know that it is time, it is overdue to invest in Black girls and their resilience, because Black women can’t.”

Rae shouted out the four Black girls in “Daughters” — Aubrey, Santana, Ja’Ana, and Raziah — as well as the many crew members who poured their “heart and sacrifice and passion that went into every frame of this film.”

“Aubrey, Santana, Ja’Ana, Raziah, this is for you guys. These are our girls,” Rae said. “They let us sit on their bedroom floors for six years and hang out and share their deepest fears and their vulnerability and now is there for the world to see. So this is for them. I love you guys so much. You changed my life, and you’ll inspire so many people.

The film is the story of Patton’s organization Girls for a Change, which offers a rehabilitation program for prisoners by giving them the chance to reconnect with their young daughters as part of a one-night Daddy-Daughter dance.

The documentary, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance and was acquired by Netflix, follows not just the men in the program but the daughters on the other side of the prison bars and how their development has been impacted as a result of not having a father figure in their lives and frequently being apart from their dads. The film lands an emotional gut punch with its verité filmmaking style while also shining a light on the strains the American justice system can put on families.

“Nickel Boys” director and writer RaMell Ross in his own acceptance speech called Daughters a “devastating production” and “wild.”

Rae said that many of the other honorees on Thursday helped inspire some of the film’s visual references.

“They share a joint commitment to center the girls and not make this a ‘prison story’ or a story that was primarily about the dads and their experience in the system,” exec producer Kerry Washington said prior to Patton and Rae accepting their honor. “’Daughters’ puts the girls center stage. Natalie brings her filmmaker experience and Angela brings her lived wisdom as a changemaker. The result is tremendous. It feels like a marriage made in heaven.”

Washington connected with the story because of her own complicated relationship with her father, ome that she had detailed in her memoir “Thicker Than Water” as well as through the show “Unprisoned” that shares parallel themes.

She also admired Patton’s mission to “prepare Black girls for the world but also to prepare the world for Black girls.”

“I love both of these filmmakers. Their ability to hold a mirror up to the culture and show us who we are is a real talent,” Washington said. “I’m most proud of about the film is that Angela and Natalie are not afraid to break your hearts with this film, but that’s because they know that they are breaking our hearts open. They don’t break our hearts to devastate us and make us feel hopeless. They break our hearts open so they can make us feel more in touch with the love that is required to make positive change in society right now. It’s such an honor to be a witness to their success and to bring more visibility to the film and to Girls for a Change.”