Smith and Antoine Fuqua received the award at the African American Film Critics Association Awards.

On Wednesday, veteran actor Will Smith made his first appearance on an award stage since the infamous slapping incident at the 2022 Oscars. He, alongside director Antoine Fuqua, came to the stage of the African American Film Critics Association Awards to accept the Beacon Award for the production of Emancipation.

Will Smith returned to the award show stage in person for the first time since slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars last year. https://t.co/WJgBV8Q7fZ

— CNN (@CNN) March 2, 2023

“The Beacon Award is intended to highlight films that are tackling challenging subjects with insight, enlightening, as well as engaging the audience,” Fuqua said. “It was our hope that Emancipation, that it would be able to bring Peter’s triumphant story and unwavering faith and his deep love for his family to life.”

“Emancipation was the most individual difficult film of my entire career,” Smith said about the film. “It’s really difficult to transport a modern mind to that time period. It’s difficult to imagine that, that level of inhumanity.”

“‘Emancipation’ was the individual most difficult film of my entire career.” Will Smith accepts the Beacon Award at the AAFCA awards ceremony. https://t.co/JI2rDIHsX8 pic.twitter.com/vR5oROfdgY

— Variety (@Variety) March 2, 2023

Smith thanked the association for the award, as well as Apple for sponsoring the film’s production. “I want to thank Apple because the budget was one thing,” he said. “And then the budget was another thing. And then the budget was another thing. And Apple never flinched. It was the first time I had heard from a studio that the story was more important than how much it costs to get it done, so then we added some more stuff that we wanted. They make iPhones. They can do it.”