CINEMATIC HISTORY:
21st CENTURY FILM
The 21st century saw cinema continue to be a space in which Black identity, history and culture is represented and contested. While racist depictions are still common, practices like Blackface have been and continue to be interrogated and condemned, while more and more Black auteurs have used film to tell their stories. Increasing numbers of Black filmmakers and actors have also been recognised by the industry, and, for example, in 2002 Halle Berry became the first Black woman to be awarded an Academy Award for Best Actress. However, to date, Berry is the sole Black winner of this category, showing that the film industry as a whole still has a long way to go. Below is a selection of notable films that have been produced in the 21st century so far. Please see our separate list for 21st century horror films.
Bamboozled, dir. Spike Lee. 2000.
Written and directed by Spike Lee, Bamboozled is a 2000 American comedy that satirises minstrel shows and Blackface. The plot follows Pierre Delacroix, an African American man who attempts to save his job at a television network by developing a new minstrel show, Mantan: The New Millennium Minstrel Show, which features Black actors in Blackface, racist jokes, and offensive animated racial stereotypes. The film received mixed reviews upon its release, but has since garnered cult film status and in 2023 it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
Legend of Bagger Vance, dir. Robert Redford. 2000.
Starring Will Smith as the mysterious Bagger Vance, Legend of Bagger Vance is a 2000 sports fantasy film that is loosely based on the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita and adapts Steven Pressfield's 1995 novel The Legend of Bagger Vance: A Novel of Golf and the Game of Life. The film takes place in 1931 at the start of the Great Depression. It centres on a wealthy former golfer and war veteran as he attempts to revive his former love of golf and deal with his personal demons while being assisted by an enigmatic stranger, Bagger Vance. The film was later criticised by many Black commentators, including Spike Lee, for using the “Magical Negro” stereotype.
Monster’s Ball, dir. Marc Foster. 2001.
Released in 2001, Monster’s Ball is an American romantic drama that stars Halle Berry as Leticia Musgrove, a widow who unwittingly enters into a relationship with a corrections officer who was involved with her husband’s execution by electric chair. The film explores grief, family trauma, crime and punishment as well as racial prejudice. In 2002, Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first African American woman to win the award, and in her acceptance speech she spoke of the importance of this achievement: “This moment is so much bigger than me. This is for every nameless, faceless woman of color who now has a chance tonight because this door has been opened.”
Brother to Brother, dir. Rodney Evans. 2004.
Written and directed by Rodney Evans, Brother to Brother is a 2004 American drama in which the worlds of two generations of gay African American artists collide. Evans has stated that he was inspired by the 1991 anthology Brother to Brother: New Writing by Black Gay Men that explored different perspectives of Black Gay life. In his film, art student Perry Williams (Anthony Mackie) befriends an elderly writer called Bruce (Roger Robinson; Duane Boutte stars as the younger Bruce) in a New York homeless shelter, and discovers he was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Bruce looks back on his relationships in these years with other important artists including Langston Hughes (Daniel Sunjata), James Baldwin (Lance Reddick) and Zora Neal Hurston (Aunjanue Ellis), and the pair reflect on their shared experiences of homophobia and racism. The film went on to win several awards including the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize in 2004.
Mississippi Damned, dir. Tina Mabry. 2009.
Mississippi Damned is a 2009 American drama film written and directed by Tina Mabry and based on her life growing up in Tupelo, Mississippi. The film follows three poor Black teenagers as they grow up in rural Mississippi and grapple with their family’s cycle of abuse, addiction and violence as well as homophobia and poverty in their wider community. The film was widely praised on its release, and won several awards in 2009 including the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Independent Feature and the New York Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Film Festival’s Audience Award.
Precious, dir. Lee Daniels, 2009.
Written by Geoffrey S. Fletcher and directed by Lee Daniels, Precious is a 2009 American drama film that adapts Sapphire’s 1996 novel of the same name. Set in Harlem, New York City, the narrative follows Claireece Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe) as she grows up in an abusive household and struggles with poverty, school and teenage motherhood. The subject matter is very dark, and Precious experiences physical and emotional abuse from her mother, sexual abuse and rape from her absent father, which results in two pregnancies, and later discovers that she is HIV positive, a virus she has inherited from her father. The film went on to receive several nominations and awards, including six Oscar nominations. Mo'Nique won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Precious’s mother Mary, while Geoffrey Fletcher won for Oscar Best Adapted Screenplay and became the first African American to win an Academy Award in this category.
Gun Hill Road, dir. Rashaad Ernesto Green. 2011.
Gun Hill Road is a 2011 American independent drama written and directed by Rashaad Ernesto Green. Set in the Bronx, the narrative follows ex-con Enrique (Esai Morales) as he returns home after serving a prison sentence to discover his wife has been unfaithful, while his child has come out as a trans girl and is in the process of transitioning. The film explores the overlap between race, gender and sexuality as it presents a vulnerable story of love and acceptance. In 2011, Harmony Santana was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role playing Enrique’s trans daughter, becoming the first openly trans actress to be nominated for this award.
Pariah, dir. Dee Rees. 2011.
Dee Rees’ Pariah is the feature film expansion of her 2007 award-winning short film of the same name. The narrative is a queer coming of age story that focuses on Alike (Adepero Oduye), a 17-year-old Black teenager. Over the course of the film, Alike comes to terms with her own identity as a butch lesbian while facing homophobia from her Christian mother. Upon its release the film won several awards including Best Independent Film and Best Breakthrough Performance–for Oduye’s performance as Alike–at the African-American Film Critics Association Awards. Later, in 2022, the Library of Congress selected Pariah for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, and the following year The Hollywood Reporter named the film as one of the best films of the 21st century so far.
Django Unchained, dir. Quentin Tarantino. 2012.
Quentin Tarantino’s 2012 Django Unchained is a 2012 American revisionist western that subverts the myth, romance and whitewashing of traditional Hollywood Westerns. Taking place in the Antebellum South, the narrative follows Django (Jamie Foxx), a former slave who partners with a German bounty hunter and sets out to rescue his wife from a Mississippi plantation. Django Unchained was a financial and critical success, and the film received several nominations and awards including five Golden Globe Award nominations and four nominations at the NAACP Image Awards. However, it also faced criticism due to its portrayal of slavery and overuse of racial slurs. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan criticised the film for turning the “savageness of slavery into pulp fiction”, and Spike Lee did not spare his disapproval of the film, writing that “American slavery was not a Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It was a Holocaust.”
12 Years a Slave, dir. Steve McQueen. 2013.
Directed by British filmmaker Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave is a 2013 biographical historical drama that adapts Solomon Northup 1853 memoir Twelve Years a Slave. The film stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northup, a mixed race American who was kidnapped from Washington D.C., sold into slavery, and forced to work on a Louisiana plantation for twelve years before regaining his freedom. Upon its release, the film was widely praised, and among its many nominations and awards 12 Years a Slave received nine Academy Award nominations and won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Ridley, and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong'o as Patsey.
Blackbird, dir. Patrik-Ian Polk. 2014.
The 2014 coming-of-age film Blackbird adapts Larry Duplechan’s 1986 novel of the same name. The film is directed and co-written by Patrik-Ian Polk, an American filmmaker known for his projects that explore the experiences of LGBTQ African Americans and who is often identified as the “father of black gay cinema”. Taking place in a small Baptist town in Mississippi, the narrative centres on high school senior Randy Rousseau (Julian Walker) and his struggles with accepting and reconciling his sexuality and his faith.
Selma, dir. Ava DuVernay. 2014.
Released in 2014 and directed by Ava DuVernay, Selma is an historical film based on the voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery that took place in 1965. The march was led by civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, and John Lewis, and these figures are portrayed in the film respectively by David Oyelowo, Wendell Pierce and Stephan James. The film explores the events that led up to the march, including the violent racist bombing of an Alabama church and political disputes. While Selma was criticised for some historical inaccuracies, the film also received plenty of praise including Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Song (which it won) and four Golden Globe Award nominations. In total, the film received 81 nominations and won 36 awards.
Creed, dir. Ryan Coogler. 2015.
Directed by Ryan Coogler, Creed is the first spin-off in the Rocky film franchise originally starring Sylvester Stallone. Stallone returns for this instalment as the trainer and mentor of amateur boxer Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan), the son of his former boxing rival turned friend. The film proved incredibly popular, and won several awards including the African-American Film Critics Association Awards for Best Director for Coogler, Best Supporting Actress for Tessa Thompson and Breakout Performance for Jordan. To date there have been two sequels, Creed II (2018) and Creed III (2023).
13th, dir. Ava Duvernay. 2016.
13th is a 2016 American documentary film that explores the prison-industrial complex in America and the intersection of race and mass incarceration. The title references the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution which abolished slavery in 1865, but in her film Ava Duvernay argues that slavery still exists through mass incarceration that disproportionately impacts communities of colour, forced penal labour and the corporatisation of the prison system. In 2017, the film won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special.
Moonlight, dir. Barry Jenkins. 2016.
Written and directed by Barry Jenkins, Moonlight is a 2016 coming-of-age film that tells the story of Chiron (Alex R. Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes) and his struggles and experiences growing up as a Black gay man. The film is based on Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, Tarell Alvin McCraney's unpublished semi-autobiographical play, and uses a three part-structure that focuses on Chiron’s neglected childhood, his adolescent struggles and then his final self-realization and acceptance as an adult. Among its many awards and nominations, Moonlight won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama as well as three Oscars for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2017, The New York Times included Moonlight in its list of the 25 best films of the 21st century so far.
Detroit, dir. Kathryn Bigelow. 2017.
Detroit is an American historical crime film that centres on the Algiers Motel murders, a police raid that turned violent during Detroit's 1967 12th Street Riot. Premiering in 2017, the film’s release commemorated the 50th anniversary of the event that culminated with the deaths of three Black teenage boys. While the film had poor box office performance and mixed reviews regarding its depiction of racism and Black resistance, it received several nominations and in 2018 won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture.
Mudbound, dir. Dee Rees. 2017.
Taking place in rural Mississippi in the aftermath of the Second World War, Mudbound is a 2017 American historical drama directed by Dee Rees. The film follows two war veterans, one Black and one white, and their struggles with racism and PTSD as they return home and adjust to life after the war. Mudbound received several nominations and awards, including Outstanding Ensemble at the Black Reel Awards which the film won.
BlacKkKlansman, dir. Spike Lee. 2018.
Directed by Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 American biopic loosely based on Ron Stallworth’s 2014 memoir Black Klansman. Stallworth was the first African American detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department, and in the 1970s he infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. The film, which is also part-crime drama and part-comedy, stars John David Washington as Stallworth and details his successful infiltration of the KKK, which he achieves with the help of his Jewish coworker, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), as well as the racism he experiences as a Black police officer. The film was a financial and critical success, and received several nominations and awards including the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Black Panther, dir. Ryan Coogler. 2018.
Released in 2018 and directed by Ryan Coogler, Black Panther is the first film within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to feature a Black superhero in the title role. Chadwick Boseman stars as T'Challa / Black Panther alongside Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Letitia Wright and Angela Bassett, and the film presents a powerful Afrofuturist vision of the imagined African Kingdom of Wakanda. Black Panther is considered to be one of the best MCU films, and on its release it broke several box office records including becoming the highest-grossing film directed by a Black filmmaker. In 2018 the film won three Oscars making it the first MCU film to win an Academy Award. Writing about Black Panther in The New York Times Magazine, Carvell Wallace characterized it as a “Defining Moment for Black America” and describes the film as a “Hollywood film” that is nonetheless “steeped very specifically and purposefully in its blackness”.
Rafiki, dir. Wanuri Kahiu. 2018.
Premiering in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival, Rafiki is the first Kenyan film to be screened at the festival. Directed by Wanuri Kahiu, the film follows two young women and explores their queer romance against the backdrop of LGBTQ rights in Kenya–where homosexuality is illegal–and in the face of family and political homophobia. Although the film was banned in Kenya due to its portrayal of homosexuality it has received several nominations and awards since its release including winning the Best Narrative Feature Award at the Seattle Queer Film Festival in 2019.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman. 2018.
Starring Shameik Moore as the title character, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a 2018 animated film that adapts the comic book character Miles Morales/Spiderman created in 2011 and debuting in Ultimate Comics: Fallout #4. Miles Morales is a modern day reimagining of Stan Lee’s popular Spiderman superhero, and sees New York’s friendly neighbourhood Spidey reimagined as an Afro–Puerto Rican teenager. The film was met with critical acclaim, winning multiple awards including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2019. It is now regarded as one of the most significant and impactful animations of the 21st century. A sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, was released in 2023 and a third instalment is also in development.
Blue Story, dir. Rapman (Andrew Onwubolu). 2019.
The UK theatrical release of the 2019 musical crime film Blue Story was met with controversy as several cinema chains cancelled screenings of the film following the outbreak of a violent "machete brawl" at a Vue Cinema in Birmingham. Up to 100 teenagers are said to have been involved, and Vue claimed that 25 significant incidents were also reported in their venues across the country. However, there was a backlash to these decisions to cancel screenings of Blue Story with many classifying the ban as “discriminatory and institutionally racist”. Rapman, the film’s director, also questioned the bans stating that his film is about “love not violence.” Based on real life gangs the Peckham Boys and Ghetto Boys as well Rapman’s own experiences growing up as a working class boy in Lewisham, the narrative follows two friends Marco (Micheal Ward) and Timmy (Stephen Odubola) who live in different parts of London, and find themselves becoming enemies as they are swept up in gang rivalries. Despite the initial controversy that enveloped Blue Story’s theatrical run, the film went on to receive several nominations and awards, including winning Best Film and Best Film Actor for Ward at the 2020 NME Awards. Ward also won a BAFTA Rising Star Award.
Small Axe, dir. Steve McQueen. 2020.
Featuring:
Mangrove - watch the trailer here.
Lovers Rock - watch the trailer here.
Red, White, and Blue - watch the trailer here.
Alex Wheatle - watch the trailer here.
Education - watch the trailer here.
Directed by Steve McQueen, Small Axe is a 2020 British anthology film that features five films, each of which follows the diverse lives of West Indian immigrants to Britain 1960s to the 1980s. The film Mangrove, for example, centres on the 1971 trial of the “Mangrove Nine” where a group of British Black activists are tried for inciting a riot against police during a 1970 protest outside a new Caribbean restaurant, the Mangrove, in Notting Hill. John Boyega stars in another film in the anthology, Red, White and Blue, where he plays Black police officer Leroy Logan, and follows his attempt to reform the metropolitan police from the inside and his founding of the Black Police Association. All of the films have been critically praised, and have received several nominations and awards. Sight and Sound named Lovers Rock as the best film of 2020, while Malachi Kirby won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role as broadcaster and racial justice campaigner Darcus Howe in Mangrove.
Judas and the Black Messiah, dir. Shaka King. 2021.
Starring Daniel Kaluuya as the American socialist and activist Fred Hampton, Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 American biopic directed by Shaka King. The film explores the real life betrayal of Hampton, then chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, by William O'Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), an FBI informant who had infiltrated the Black Panther. The film received several accolades, and Kaluuya was particularly praised for his role, winning Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Critics' Choice Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards, and BAFTA Awards. However, the decision of these award bodies to nominate Kaluuya and his co-star Stanfield in the supporting actor category, and not the leading actor category left many perplexed, and even the New York Times questioned, “If Stanfield and Kaluuya are both supporting actors, then who exactly is this movie supposed to be about?”
Medusa Deluxe, dir. Thomas Hardiman. 2022.
Premiering in 2022, Medusa Deluxe is a British murder mystery film that takes place in a competitive hairdressing contest. When a hairdresser is scalped backstage, the film unfolds into a unique whodunnit where everyone suspects each other, and a community’s passion for hair threatens to transform into deadly obsession.
The Woman King, dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood. 2022.
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Woman King is a 2022 American historical action film that tells the story of the Agojie, an all-female warrior unit in West Africa that protected the Kingdom of Dahomey (now modern day Benin) in the early 19th century. Viola Davis stars as General Nanisca who is training the next generation of warriors. Following its release, the film faced criticism for its inaccurate representation of slavery, but it was also praised for being a “crowd-pleasing epic—think Braveheart with Black women” (The Hollywood Reporter), and Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu were widely lauded for their roles. The American Film Institute and the National Board of Review have both named The Woman King as one of the top ten films of 2020.
Till, dir. Chinonye Chukwu. 2022.
Directed by Chinonye Chukwu, the 2022 American biopic Till tells the true story of Mamie Till and her pursuit for justice following the murder of her 14-year-old son Emmett in 1955. The film is dedicated to the life and legacy of Mamie Till, and stars Danielle Deadwyler with Jalyn Hall playing the role of her son Emmett. Upon its release the film was widely praised, and Deadwyler received several awards for her role including Outstanding Actress at the Black Reel Awards and Best Actress in a Motion Picture at the Satellite Awards. In 2022, the National Board of Review named Till as one of the top ten films of the year.
American Fiction, dir. Cord Jefferson. 2023.
Cord Jefferson’s directorial debut is American Fiction, a 2023 American comedy that adapts Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure. The plot centres on African American writer and professor Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) who has become frustrated with his books receiving academic praise but selling poorly for not being “Black enough”. He decides to write a satirical novel that mocks the stereotypes expected from Black authors that he titles My Pafology. However, he is horrified when this book garners media attention, awards and a movie deal and has to confront the disparity between his desires as a Black artist and the demands white audiences place upon Black stories. The film was widely praised and received several awards including Outstanding Film at the 2024 Black Reel Awards, Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA and also an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2023, American Fiction was included in the American Film Institute’s list of the top ten films of the year.
Rustin, dir. George C. Wolfe. 2023.
Directed by George C. Wolfe, Rustin is a 2023 American biopic that chronicles the life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin from his involvement in the 1960s civil rights movement, his alienation from Martin Luther King and his struggles for acceptance in a movement that wasn’t always comfortable with his socialist politics or his openly gay relationships. The film is produced by Higher Ground, the production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama, and stars Colman Domingo in the title role. Rustin received mixed reviews. Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Maureen Lee praised Domingo’s performance of “a man fighting for both his race and his sexuality” that “feels incredibly personal”, however writers such as Dustin Guastela criticised the film, writing in the Jacobin that “Rustin claims the civil rights hero has been forgotten because of his sexuality. But it was his fiery and provocative class politics that makes him both controversial and prophetic today.”
Rye Lane, dir. Raine Allen-Miller. 2023.
The 2023 British romantic comedy Rye Lane is Raine Allen Miller’s directorial debut. Set in Peckham and Brixton in South London, the film follows Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) who are two strangers that end up spending the day together bonding over their recent breakups and getting to know each other. The film was met with critical acclaim, and received several nominations and awards including Outstanding International Film at the Black Reel Film awards. Allen-Miller was also praised, with Robert Daniels writing in the The Playlist that “Not since Spike Lee introduced the world to Bed–Stuy, has a Black director so seamlessly embedded viewers into the verve and flavor of their neighborhood.”
Sing Sing, dir. Greg Kwedar. 2023.
Directed by Greg Kwedar, Sing Sing is a 2023 American Prison Drama based on the real-life Rehabilitation Through the Arts program at Sing Sing Maximum Security Prison. The film’s cast includes Colman Domingo, Sean San José and Paul Raci who star alongside real-life formerly incarcerated men who had participated in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program, and focuses on a group of incarcerated men who are taking part in the RTA program and preparing a theatrical production. Sing Sing was widely praised, and as well as receiving several nominations at the Academy Awards and the BAFTAS, it was named as one of the top ten films of 2024 by both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute.
La nuit se traîne [Night Call], dir. Michiel Blanchart. 2024
Premiering in 2024, La nuit se traîne (Night Call) is a Belgian-French collaboration that takes place over the course of one night in Belgium amidst the backdrop of a Black Lives Matter protest. The film follows Mady (Jonathan Feltre), a locksmith who is tricked into breaking into the home of a gangster and white supremacist. Mady ends up killing the man in self-defence, and becomes unwittingly embroiled in the internal struggles of the gang and a corrupt police force. In 2025 La nuit se traîne won ten awards at Belgium’s Magritte Awards, including Best Film, Best First Feature Film, and Best Director for Blanchart, and holds the record for the Magritte Awards won by a single film.
Rebel Ridge, dir. Jeremy Saulnier. 2024.
Rebel Ridge is a 2024 American action film that stars Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who comes into conflict with a small town's corrupt police force. Richmond attempts to post bail for his cousin but his money is unjustly seized by the police via civil forfeiture. When his efforts to amicably compromise with the police fail, he turns to his military training and discovers a police corruption and a cover-up that impacts not just his cousin but the whole town. In 2025, Rebel Ridge won the Critics Choice Awards for Best Movie Made for Television.
The Six Triple Eight, dir. Tyler Perry. 2024.
Written and directed by Tyler Perry, The Six Triple Eight is an American war drama film that centres on the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all-Black, all-female battalion, in the Second World War. The film is based on Kevin M. Hymel’s article ‘Fighting a Two-Front War’, and chronicles the experiences of women in the first and only Women’s Army Corps unit of color as they faced the terrors of war alongside racial and gender discrimination. Upon its release, the film received mixed reviews, but Kerry Washington and Ebony Obsidian were praised for their roles as Major Charity Adams and Lena Derriecott Bell King in the battalion. The Six Triple Eight received five nominations at the NAACP Image Awards of which it won all of them, including Outstanding Motion Picture, Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture for Washington and Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for Obsidian.
Nickel Boys, dir. RaMell Ross. 2024.
Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s 2009 novel of the same name, Nickel Boys is a 2024 American historical drama directed by RaMell Ross. The narrative centres on an abusive reform school in 1960s Florida which is inspired by the real life Dozier School for Boys and its history of abuse. Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson star as two African American boys sent to the school, and the film chronicles the mistreatment they experience as well as the later discovery of unmarked graves at the school that reveals the full extent of the criminal maltreatment enacted upon the students. Upon its release the film was critically praised, and received several nominations and awards including the Black Reel Awards for Outstanding Film and Outstanding Director. In 2025, Vulture Magazine also included Nickel Boys in its list of ‘The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars.’
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