Di Caprio won best performance for leading actor, while his costar Hounsou, who also stared in one of the leading roles in the movie Amistad; 1997 as Cinque a slave on board the Amistad who participated in the rebellion against the crew of the ship, won best supporting actor for his role in the Blood Diamond. The film won several awards including best editing, best sound editing and best sound mixing. It was filmed on location in Cape Town in South Africa.

The movie portrays Archer in his role as it evolves through the movie as an uninterested third party and a smuggler of rough diamonds used by rebels to buy weapons to a caring friend of the downtrodden Solomon Vandy who has lost his home, his family and any means of a life he may have once had. They are aided on several occasions by Connelley's character the photo journalist Maddy Bowen, who eventually aids in getting Vandy out of the country, and to London where he is able to rejoin his family, expose the diamond smuggling operation, with the expert help of Maddy, and tell his story to the public. -JS