‘Get Out' writer and director Jordan Peele honored with director of the year award

Jordan Peele, writer and director of the brilliant socially conscious horror film “Get Out,” is being honored as Director of the Year at CinemaCon, the gathering of the National Association of Theatre Owners, happening March 30 in Las Vegas.

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"With the phenomenon known as 'Get Out,' Jordan Peele has instantaneously become a force to reckon with as a gifted and enormously talented director and filmmaker," CinemaCon Managing Director Mitch Neuhauser said in a statement. "He has audiences and critics around the globe enamored and spellbound, dare I say hypnotized, with his wildly inventive directorial debut, and we are ecstatic to be honoring him as this year's 'Director of the Year.'"

“Get Out,” his directorial debut, is quite a departure from “Keanu” or the acclaimed Comedy Central sketch comedy series “Key and Peele.” The movie starts out hitting the notes of a romantic comedy, with Chris, played by Daniel Kaluuya, who is black, and Rose, played by Allison Williams, who is white, headed to a weekend at her parents’ home outside of New York and in the countryside.

"I wrote this movie in the Obama presidency. It felt like race was not being discussed in a way I felt like it deserved to be," Peele said during an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "For the past couple of years and especially now, racial tension and racial conversation is front and center in this country."

The movie captivated audiences and made history when Peele became the first African-American writer-director to earn $100 million with his debut movie. Yet he knows all too well the persistent sting of racism.

“I’ve been asked to hang up coats” while attending black-tie events, he said.

“We have to look within ourselves constantly,” Peele said. “Racism is always going to be present in this country, and racism is not a one-sided dynamic. This isn’t just a black horror movie, this is a movie everyone is meant to enjoy. It’s a way to promote that conversation in a way that’s fun.”

Cox Media Group