Racquel Gates and Rebecca Prime have been named 2020 Academy Film Scholars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Their respective book projects, “Hollywood Style and the Invention of Blackness” and “Uptight!: Race, Revolution, and the Struggle to Make the Most Dangerous Film of 1968,” explore in depth the topic of race in Hollywood.

The Academy’s Educational Grants Committee will award Gates and Prime each $25,000 on the basis of their proposals.

Gates is an associate professor of Cinema and Media Studies at the College of Staten Island, CUNY. She is the author of “Double Negative: The Black Image and Popular Culture” and has also published essays about Black film and media. Her book project, “Hollywood Style and the Invention of Blackness,” will argue that the formal conventions of the Classical Hollywood era defined the stylistic terms for Blackness on screen and continue to impact how cinematic Blackness gets represented, understood and reimagined today.

“I am immensely grateful and honored to receive the support of the Academy to embark on this project, which is especially meaningful in this cultural moment and in light of the Academy’s own diversity initiatives,” Gates said.

Prime is the associate editor of Film Quarterly, and her film and book reviews have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. Her book project, “Uptight!: Race, Revolution, and the Struggle to Make the Most Dangerous Film of 1968,” will reveal the unusually troubled production of “Uptight,” a film directed by Jules Dassin, and the first feature film to address the Black Power movement.

“As an independent scholar, I’m especially gratified by the Academy’s recognition and support, which will provide the opportunity to turn this project – long dear to my heart and charged with a new immediacy by current events – into a reality,” Prime said.

Established in 1999, the Academy Film Scholars program is designed to support significant new works of film scholarship. For information, visit org/filmscholars.