Hollywood star Will Smith was honored with a Beacon Award by the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) at the 14th annual awards ceremony held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

In his first appearance at an awards ceremony since the incident with Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars, the actor said the movie “Emancipation” means a lot to him and thanked everyone who helped make it happen.

“‘Emancipation’ was the most difficult film of my career. It’s really hard to “transfer” that era to current thinking. It’s hard to imagine this level of inhumanity,” the actor said as he began his speech. “I want to thank Apple, because they did not flinch when the budget kept increasing. It was the first time I heard from a studio that the story of a film is more important than how much it costs,” added the actor who received his award together with “Emancipation” director Antoine Fuqua.

Before his award, Smith told Deadline how happy he is about the fourth “Bad Boys” sequel. “I’m very happy to work with these people again,” noted the actor.