The American Black Film Festival was a key step in Ryan Coogler’s journey to become an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker. It also gave him a leg up in wooing his future wife and producing partner Zinzi Coogler.

In 2011, Coogler’s short film “Fig” was selected to be part of ABFF and HBO’s annual short film competition, helping the “extremely broke” aspiring director launch his career — and take his “hot girlfriend” on a beach vacation to Miami, where the festival is held annually.

“I didn’t know that we had a festival like that, that had a relationship with HBO, where your short film could get put on television. And that was what I was after, the opportunity for access. And I didn’t know that that prize came with a little cash reward,” Coogler said at the ABFF Honors on Monday night, laughing along with the well-heeled crowd assembled at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.

“Y’all are laughing, but I was extremely broke at the time. The only one not laughing is Zinzi because she knew how broke I was,” the “Sinners” director quipped, adding, “It’s a lot of work having a woman that hot when you’re that broke.”

Even the director of the most-nominated film in Oscars history had to start somewhere.

“With that $40k, I immediately went home, back to the Bay, put a down payment on an apartment, you know, slick-talked this cutie into moving in with me, and we was off to the races, for real,” Coogler recalled.

It wasn’t just the money that changed everything. “That was the first time that was a vote of confidence in me that came with some capital that enabled me to really focus and get ‘Fruitvale [Station]’ made,” Coogler continued, looking to ABFF co-founders Jeff and Nicole Friday, who were seated in front of him. “I’ll be forever indebted to you guys for being such incredible cultivators. Whenever I make a film, I think about y’all. I think about this community. It’s got to work for us first, before it works for anybody else. And it means so much when it connects.”

Ryan Coogler has taken the stage at pretty much every awards show in existence since “Sinners” earned a record-breaking $368 million at the box office, and this year’s ABFF Honors ceremony was just the latest spotlight that the blockbuster movie commanded. Truth be told, Coogler isn’t the biggest fan of attention, but when it’s about celebrating the entire creative team behind “Sinners,” that’s something he can get involved with.

The film’s Oscar-nominated stars Michael B. Jordan and Wunmi Mosaku introduced the Cooglers and their Proximity Media co-founder Sev Ohanian to the stage, with Dwayne Johnson (who was honored later in the program) leading the crowd in a standing ovation.

Zinzi Coogler took the mic first, reflecting on her personal connection to the film, set in 1932 Mississippi; her father was born in 1931 in the Southern state before his family moved to Chicago.

“Working on ‘Sinners’ allowed me to dive into the history of my family, my not far-distant ancestors, and imagine a fantastical life they might have lived — despite,” Zinzi Coogler said, wrapping up her remarks by saluting trailblazing filmmakers like Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay, Oscar Micheaux, John Singleton and Euzhan Palcy. “Thank you for bearing the burden of paving a path for filmmakers like ourselves to dream big so that our history, our myths and our legends may carry on across the biggest screens,” she said.

In his speech, Ohanian, who is Armenian, extolled the virtues of allyship across cultures. “My family immigrated here to America from Iran as political refugees when I was very young,” he said, then cracked: “All of which is a long way of saying, in case you guys were not aware, I’m not Black. But what I am is deeply honored to stand here as an ally to my Black colleagues and friends to help them bring their stories to life, and I’m extra proud not to be the first Armenian American to do so.”

While producing Proximity’s 2021 film, “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Ohanian learned about an Armenian American man named Charles Garry — aka Charles Garabedian — who represented the Black Panther Party.

“He connected first-hand with their struggle for dignity and civil rights. Charles fought beside them at great personal risk, and that example always stayed with me,” Ohanian shared. “When we tell specific stories rooted in culture and lived experience, I believe they, too, can help connect with people across cultures, to show everyone our shared humanity.”

Like Coogler, director and executive producer Salli Richardson-Whitfield (“Task,” “The Gilded Age”) reflected on her full-circle relationship with ABFF as she accepted the Evolution Award.

“ABFF isn’t just a film festival. It’s history. It’s proof that Black stories matter and that Black artists endure,” Richardson-Whitfield said, accepting the award from Mario van Peebles and noting that she’d been coming to the fest since its inception 30 years ago. Back then, she was a young actress with big dreams.

“Evolution doesn’t stop when you’re recognized,” Richardson-Whitfield said, reflecting on her career transition from on-camera to the director’s chair. “It continues when you’re brave enough to imagine what’s next.”

Then, “F1” star Damson Idris was recognized with the Horizon Award presented by uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who lauded the rising talent as the next great movie star.

Idris’ journey with ABFF started in 2017 with a special screening of the pilot of his FX show “Snowfall.” Only 17 people showed up for the screening, but Idris never forgot what series creator, the late John Singleton, whispered to him: “Damson, remember, as long as Black people love you, you’ll always have a home.”

Learning he’d be honored by the same film festival made him reminisce about the journey from South London to Hollywood. “The early auditions, the rejections, the small wins that meant everything,” the British actor said. “And now to be here, the past few years, stretching me in ways I didn’t expect. Stepping into the world of Formula One recently, the scale of precision working alongside some of the absolute greats sharpens you. It reminds you to stay a student no matter where you are.”

One of Keke Palmer’s great teachers in this business has been film icon Angela Bassett, whom she presented with the Excellence in the Arts award for her acclaimed body of work.

“I got more starstruck than you’d expect a 10-year-old to be,” Palmer said, sharing what she learned from working alongside Bassett on the set of “Akeela and the Bee,” including how to cry for a key scene in the drama. “She was teaching me not just how to cry on cue, but how to not tear myself apart to get there.”

Even more impactful than Bassett’s acting talent, Palmer explained, is how gracefully she’s navigated the entertainment business and all its pitfalls, especially for people of color.

“She has survived, not only to share her gift with the world, but with her spirit intact,” Palmer said. “Clarity on who you are as a person and a performer in an industry that’s built on perception is the greatest thing she’s taught me of all. And she never had to say a word for that one; all I had to do is watch. I’m still watching you, Ms. Angela Bassett, and imitating you is the greatest form of flattery I can show for the inspiration that you have been to me.”

Bassett then delivered the most powerful oration of the evening —a speech about “endurance, commitment, the decision to keep showing up” amid the challenges of a changing world.

“We are living in a moment where the language of inclusion and belonging is being challenged, rebranded, and in some cases, erased altogether. Words that once felt good — ‘promise’ and ‘possibility’ — are now treated as words to avoid,” Bassett said. “At the same time, our industry is transforming at lightning speed. Technology is moving faster than wisdom. Business models are shifting under our feet. Stories are being shortened, flattened and sometimes stripped of their soul in the name of efficiency and projected progress.”

Bassett shared what it took her to succeed in an industry that provided few examples that a Black woman could “live a full, complex, enduring life on screen, and even fewer that suggested that she could shape what happens behind the camera.”

It was the community of Black artists around her – and their persistence — that carried her through those trying times.

“Those peers who told the truth, those audiences who showed up anyway, and a persistent sacred belief that our stories are not trends. They are truths,” Bassett said. “Targets are being put on our backs as people by those at the highest heights of power in the world, and the only way to combat such vitriol and racism and misinformation about who we are is to keep telling our own stories. By showing the power of our individual and collective journeys. To not just show the world the kings and queens that we have always been, but to also show them that we do belong, we do matter, and we are not going anywhere because we are home. No one gets to determine or define our own humanity.”

Bassett closed her speech with words from Harriet Tubman. “Every great dream begins with a dreamer,” she said, quoting the legendary abolitionist. “Always remember that you have within you the strength, the patience and the passion to reach for the stars and to change. Thank you for continuing to dream. Thank you for believing and pushing forward our stories and thank you for imagining a future where excellence includes not just some, but all of us.”

EGOT winner and talk show host Jennifer Hudson, who received the Renaissance Award, also spoke about dreams when she accepted the Renaissance Award from her fellow “Dreamgirl,” stage and screen star Sheryl Lee Ralph. Beyond fulfilling her own dreams of being recognized among this lineup, Hudson was focused on inspiring the next generation.

Hudson brought her son David to the event and, before they arrived, she’d asked who in the industry he hadn’t met that he’d still like to. He answered: Ryan Coogler. She didn’t tell him the filmmaker would be in attendance.

“When they got here, I said, ‘You manifested that. Look at the power of the brain and what you can do,’” she said, turning to David and a group of young men he’s grown up with. “Take these moments in. This is why I bring you around, so you can see all the greatness that we can possess.”

The evening’s final award, the Entertainment Icon prize, went to Dwayne Johnson. “Wicked” director Jon M. Chu introduced the actor — jokingly nicknamed “franchise Viagra” — whom he’d cast in 2013’s “G.I. Joe: Retaliation.” On the first day of filming, Johnson wanted to chat.

“He put his arm around my puny little shoulders, and said, ‘Can you believe a person who looks like you and a person who looks like me can be directing and starring in this giant movie from a big ass studio for the world to enjoy? I just want you to know I got you. We’re gonna kill this shit together,’” Chu recalled. “I never really thought about my cultural identity on a Hollywood set — at least not out loud. He immediately called it out. And that whisper never left me and inspired me in all my work going forward.”

Johnson was visibly emotional as he took the stage, contemplating that idea of identity and those who paved the way for him to be in this position, including his late father, wrestling legend Rocky Johnson.

“He came up as a black man in the ‘60s and the ‘70s, here in the States, in professional wrestling. That’s a different crowd back then; it’s a different audience. And he still chased that excellence and that greatness that this whole room embodies,” Johnson began.

As he mused over the concepts of Black excellence and the pursuit of greatness, Johnson realized that excellence was connected to endurance. “And what endurance is connected to is resilience, and that’s this room — resilient men and women,” he said. “Then, I started to think that resilience is connected to survival. And that’s what we are. Survivors, who have that warrior spirit in us [from] our ancestors and our loved ones. … It’s in us. It’s in our DNA.”

That survivor spirit is how Johnson found his way in a business that didn’t include anyone quite like him, a half-Black, half-Samoan former wrestler with dreams of becoming a movie star. For a while, he tried to fit into the mold Hollywood wanted to put him in, but eventually, he realized he had to buck the odds to truly succeed.

“When someone says, ‘Hey, you should do it like this,’ or ‘You can’t do it like that,’ or, ‘Stay in your lane. It’s working.’ I want to take a brass ring and take it to places that it’s never been taken before,” Johnson said. “And if I fail, that’s okay, because I failed being myself, and that’s important.”

To conclude, Johnson shared a final tidbit of wisdom: “Just because something has never been done doesn’t mean that it can’t be done. Just means that we haven’t figured out how to do it yet. And we will figure out how to do it.”