The great Aretha Franklin may be heading to an Oscar campaign as Amazing Grace, the concert film about Aretha Franklin’s 1972 performance at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, has been added to the schedule at AFI Fest.
The release of the documentary at AFI Fest puts the film in contention for an Academy Award nomination and possible win.
The documentary has been tied up in legal issues and it comes from footage shot by the late Sydney Pollack, was originally scheduled to debut at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival. However, before it released, U.S. district judge issued an emergency injunction at Franklin’s request, the film was dropped from that year’s Telluride and Toronto Film Festival line-ups.
In the wake of Franklin’s Aug. 16 death, producer Alan Elliott, who acquired rights to the film in 2007, struck a deal with the Aretha Franklin Estate to release the film.
The film begins an Oscar-qualifying run in Los Angeles on November 20th.
