For the first time since the slap incident at the Oscars last year, US actor Will Smith (54) has appeared on the stage of an award gala. At the African American Film Critics Association Awards on Wednesday evening (local time) in Los Angeles, Smith accepted an award for the film "Emancipation" along with director Antoine Fuqua.

The film, in which Smith plays an enslaved man in the mid-19th century southern United States, was the most difficult film of his career, Smith said in his acceptance speech. "It's very hard to put a modern mind in that era. It's hard to imagine that level of inhumanity."

At last year's Oscars, Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock onstage after he made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett. Smith later apologized. He was banned from film academy events, including Academy Awards, for ten years. This year's Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for March 12th.