Will Smith's first major film post-Oscars slap, 'Emancipation,' earns praise at special screening - Entertainment Weekly News

Apple screened the new film Emancipation from director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and starring Smith as Peter, an enslaved man who runs away from Louisiana in search of his family and ends up joining the Union Army.

Following the screening, Smith, who has kept a rather low profile since the last Academy Awards, participated in a conversation with Fuqua, and Mary Elliott, curator of American Slavery at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, moderated by political and cultural commentator Angela Rye.

"This is a film about the heart of a man — what could be called the first viral image," Smith said.

However, should Smith and Emancipation generate any Oscar buzz, Smith won't be able to attend the ceremony, or any ceremony, for another 10 years