ST. LOUIS — An East St. Louis native reached a major milestone in his career when he recently received a lifetime achievement award from the St. Louis International Film Festival.
Director and producer Reginald Hudlin credits his Missouri upbringing for being a better storyteller in Hollywood.
Having a film career spanning more than three decades, Hudlin said he's surprisingly never attended the St. Louis International Film Festival before this year.
However coming home to St. Louis was made just a little bit more memorable with a SLIFF Lifetime Achievement Award to sit beside his Oscar and Emmy nominations.
"When you get a lifetime achievement award, it feels like that's an acknowledgment of your body of work," Hudlin said. "Like you know what, you keep doing things that are not embarrassing. They don't suck, and, in fact, we like them."
It's quite the body of work for Hudlin, a proud East St. Louis native.
Whether that's one of his first hits, "House Party" in 1990 or his latest to-be-released movie "Candy Cane Lane" on Amazon Prime with comedic icon Eddie Murphy.
Not to mention, the football drama "Safety" on Disney+ and another classic "Boomerang" starring Murphy again, Chris Rock and Halle Berry.
SLIFF executive director Bree Maniscalco said Hudlin received the award because he has "reached across and done documentaries. He's done a series with Oprah about African American males and the role that they play as fathers, filmmakers and actors. That has been incredible.
"He's directed award shows. He's also done animated works not just on the big screen but through comic books. They way that he's getting the youth interested in paper book and then on the screen it's incredible."
Hudlin said being from the Midwest helped him get his name in lights, and being around hardworking people was crucial.
His advice for aspiring St. Louis filmmakers is to lean into technology and use their smartphones.
"You can film your own movie and cut it together," Hudlin said. "You have all this stuff in your pocket. We didn't have that when I was a kid. We didn't have pockets when we were kids. So you've got all this stuff right in your pocket."