Katherine Jackson is the heart of the movie “Michael,” and the actress who played her gets a big night tonight.
Nia Long, who brought Michael’s mother to life on the big screen, is receiving the Leonard Maltin Award at the 2026 Coronado Island Film Festival in California. The honor celebrates her whole career and her performance as Katherine in “Michael.”
The award is handed out this evening, Wednesday, Nov 4, at the Leonard Maltin Industry Tribute Awards Gala at the Hotel del Coronado. Kenny Loggins is getting the Legacy Award at the same event. And tomorrow, Thursday, Nov 5, Long and casting director Victoria Thomas are scheduled to talk about their work together on “Michael.” The festival runs from Nov 4 to 8.
If you don’t know her name, you probably know her face. Nia Long has been in “Boyz n the Hood,” “Love Jones,” “Soul Food,” “Friday” and “The Best Man,” and TV fans remember her from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
“Michael” opened on April 24, 2026. It was directed by Antoine Fuqua, and Michael is played by Jaafar Jackson, his real nephew and the son of Michael’s brother Jermaine. That’s a family connection right there on screen.
Long clearly took the role of Katherine to heart. She has called Katherine “the real hero in all of this.” And about the film as a whole, she said, “And I think Michael would be happy.”
Here she is talking about what playing Katherine Jackson taught her. Listen for how she describes the grace she learned from Michael’s mother, because it tells you a lot about why this role meant so much to her.
Nia Long on what she learned from playing Katherine Jackson
But her connection to the Jacksons didn’t start with this movie. In an interview this spring, reported by Complex, she shared a story about the night she met Michael himself.
It happened backstage at a Stevie Wonder concert. Michael was there with director John Singleton, the man who directed Long in “Boyz n the Hood” in 1991. Singleton later directed Michael’s “Remember the Time” video in 1992.
And Michael spotted her first.
“He was like, ‘Hi, Nia Long!'” she remembered.
Michael Jackson knew her name before she could say hello. And her reaction was pure fan. “I literally couldn’t speak,” she said.
What stayed with her afterward was how down to earth he was.
“He was such a real person. When he said your name, it wasn’t on some ‘I’m Michael Jackson, and you’re whoever you are.’ He genuinely wanted to connect in that moment.”
There’s an even older link, too. When Long was a child, her mother worked for Michael’s record label in the early years of his solo career. Long remembers photos of Michael all over the office. Her mom was so sure he’d become a huge star that she told her daughter to take a few of those pictures.
So the little girl who grew up around Michael’s photos ended up playing his mother decades later. Tonight at the Hotel del Coronado, she gets honored for her career and for that role.