by Jeroslyn JoVonn
January 16, 2025
Colman Domingo’s “Sing Sing” will become the first film to be released in theaters and prisons across the country.
Colman Domingo’s A24 film Sing Sing will be re-released this week, making history as the first film to be simultaneously released to nearly a million incarcerated individuals across the U.S.
The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the Oscar-contender film will return to over 500 theaters on Jan. 17 with an even wider release, including prisons across the country. Correctional facilities in California, New York, Texas, and 43 other states will get to see the film, which tells the story of a group of men enrolled in a prison theater program.
The unique release is the result of a collaboration between A24, Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA)—the real-life nonprofit that inspired the film—and Edovo, a nonprofit that provides educational curricula to incarcerated individuals via tablets in over 1,100 correctional facilities nationwide.
“Storytelling has an incredible way of sparking hope and building connections, even in the toughest circumstances,” said Edovo Founder and CEO Brian Hill. “With Sing Sing, we’re giving incarcerated individuals an opportunity to see themselves in a story of resilience and transformation and to feel inspired to imagine new possibilities for their own lives. “
Domingo and Oscar nominee Paul Raci were among the few professional actors in the cast, with most of the performers being formerly incarcerated. Many of them are alumni of the RTA program, including Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin and Jon-Adrian “JJ” Velazquez.
“My journey through education and the arts gave me hope during my wrongful conviction, restoring my faith in humanity, sparking a culture of redemption during my incarceration,” Velazquez said. “By providing access to the movie Sing Sing, we can transform lives in ways beyond our imagination.”
Domingo played Divine G, a wrongfully convicted man who helped spearhead the prison’s theater program. The film was originally released last summer and raked in $2.9 million at the box office.
The Color Purple star’s performance in the film earned him a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and three Independent Spirit Award nominations, including Best Feature, and has positioned him as an Oscar frontrunner this year, building on his Best Actor Academy Award nomination last year for his role in Rustin.
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