Black Cake Earns SOFEE
The Critics Choice Association (CCA) Women’s Committee is pleased to announce that “Black Cake” (Hulu) will receive the Seal of Female Empowerment in Entertainment. Called the “SOFEE,” the Seal recognizes outstanding new films and television series that illuminate the female experience and perspective through authentically told female-driven stories.
Based on a novel by Charmaine Wilkerson, “Black Cake” is a unique and exciting series that masterfully weaves together a story spanning multiple generations. Covey (Mia Isaac) is a young woman who wants nothing more than freedom. Journeying from her home, known as “the Island,” through England, Scotland, Jamaica, Italy and Los Angeles, Covey embarks on a decades-long, world-spanning odyssey worthy of Ulysses. Covey may start the series vanishing into the choppy surf, but she learns she cannot disappear from the mysteries that continue to haunt her life.
Much like its heroine – who is Caribbean and Chinese, a mother and dreamer, survivor and grifter – “Black Cake” is many things. The series masterfully blends a murder mystery, a family drama, and a historic thriller into a tenderly resonant epic. It features multi-faceted Black Caribbean women and girls, all with emotional depths that are as wondrous to explore as the oceans.
“On behalf of our all-female writing staff and predominantly female cast, crew, directors, and producers, I am honored and thrilled that ‘Black Cake’ has been stamped with the SOFEE Seal,” stated show-runner and executive producer Marissa Jo Cerar. “The power of female relationships – whether they’re romantic, platonic, or familial – made me fall in love with Charmaine Wilkerson’s beautiful novel, and the fact that you’re recognizing a series with a cast of women of color makes this even sweeter. Female-centered, humanity-forward stories have the power to change the world, and we are grateful that you are shining your light on our labor of love. We hope that Covey and all the women who help her on her journey will thrill, move, and inspire audiences to see themselves as the heroines of their own stories.”
“Black Cake” received a perfect score in the numerical formula that is used to determine if new titles, nominated by CCA Women’s Committee members, are eligible for a SOFEE. Qualifying projects will have a prominent female character arc, give female characters at least equal screen time to male characters, have female leaders behind the scenes, and pass elements highlighted in the Bechdel test. To be considered, new film and television releases must possess an artistic and storytelling value and exceptionality, and score at least 7 out of a possible 10 points in the SOFEE rubric, which can be found at CriticsChoice.com.
The Seal of Female Empowerment in Entertainment is issued by the CCA Women’s Committee. Members include Tara McNamara (Chair), Hillary Atkin, Semira Ben-Amor, Christina Birro, Lauren Bradshaw, Jamie Broadnax, TJ Callahan, Catalina Combs, Toni Gonzales, Teri Hart, Laura Hurley, Susan Kamyab, Destiny Jackson, Lilly Liu, Louisa Moore, Gayl Murphy, Mary Murphy, Sherin Nicole, Patricia Puentes, Christina Radish, Amanda Salas, Rachel Smith, Sammi Turano, and Lynn Venhaus, and Lauren Veneziani, as well as Board member Grae Drake.
