Jensen Atwood

CHICAGO SUN TIMES OCT 20



Jennifer Hudson accepts her award Saturday from actor Jensen Atwood (right) at Chase Auditorium. Hudson later serenaded lifetime achievement honoree Sidney Poitier (inset). (Oscar Lopez, for the Sun-Times/AP)


One film fest honoree serenades the other

October 20, 2008

BY MISHA DAVENPORT mdavenport@suntimes.com

Hollywood's gilded past and bright future were both honored Saturday as Oscar winners Jennifer Hudson and Sidney Poitier accepted awards at the Chicago International Film Festival's 12th Annual Black Perspectives Tribute.

Hudson, a Chicago native who took home an Academy Award in 2007 for her debut performance as Effie White in "Dreamgirls," kept her remarks short when she accepted a trophy for artistic achievement.

"There is nothing like being at home and being received by your own," she told the sold-out crowd of 525.

She returned at the end of the evening to serenade lifetime achievement honoree Sidney Poitier with a soulful rendition of the title track from his 1967 film "To Sir, With Love."

The 82-year-old actor took questions from Johnson Publishing chairman Linda Johnson Rice and reminisced about filming "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" with screen legends Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn: "As I was looking at them and talking to them, I was saying in my head: 'Oh, my God! Here I am talking to these two great actors.' I couldn't remember my lines."

Poitier ended up having to shoot the scene with a stand-in for the actors.

He was humble in accepting the award. "I thank you for the opportunity to speak with you face to face," he said. "Now you know enough about me that you will be completely tired of me very shortly, but the fact remains I shall never forget you."