7 Award-Winning Films from Sensational Black Women That May Have Flown Under Your Radar
Reframing Hollywood Through the Black Female Gaze: A Black History Month Series (Part 2)
Image: Nanny, Amazon Prime Video
Black women excelled behind the camera last year.
Unfortunately, their impressive achievements were odd-defying feats rather than regular occurrences.
According to UCLA’s extensive Hollywood Diversity Report, we’ve seen an explosion of women and people of color (POC) on the big screen.
Dr. Darnell Hunt and Dr. Ana-Christina Ramón, the study’s authors, looked at the top 200 theatrical releases in 2018 and 2019 and compared these figures to similar ones over the prior decade.
They found that men of color and white women saw increased opportunities behind the camera.
In 2011, POC made up 12.2% of theatrical film directors. This percentage only rose to 15.1% in 2019.
Women directors, mostly white, saw substantial growth, from 4.1% of all directors in 2011 to a record high of 15.1% in 2019.
However, according to the more recent USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Report, the numbers for women of color (WOC) paint a bleaker picture.
The latest numbers show that Black female filmmakers remain underrepresented by an unspeakable margin. Significantly more so than their POC male or white female counterparts.
The report’s author, University of Southern California’s Dr. Stacy L. Smith, cites that WOC directors earn the highest reviews per Metacritic yet average lower production budgets and fewer marketing dollars.
“While directors from underrepresented racial or ethnic groups reached a 15-year-high in 2021, the share of minority female directors remained stagnant at less than 2%.” — Fortune.com
There shouldn’t be a lack of opportunities for Black female filmmakers because there isn’t a lack of talent.
Instead, WOC filmmakers break through the noise by telling singular, authentic stories about characters we rarely see on screen.
From a battle-tested pastor’s wife of a southern Black mega-church to the fierce military general of a real-life African warrior tribe, these daring storytellers expose the universal humanity of Black women around the globe.
As fearless visionaries, they juxtapose resilience and empathy through a layered Black female gaze.
They shatter the status quo of what Hollywood thinks and what audiences expect regarding WOC who emulate the Black experience.
Let’s celebrate these spectacular filmmakers who pioneer their trails and punch their golden tickets to award recognition and critical acclaim.
You may have missed these seven award-winning films from sensational Black women last year. However, each one is a worthy addition to your must-watch list.
Image: Till, United Artists Releasing
1. Till, 2022
Director: Chinonye Chukwu
Chukwu writes and directs this powerful American biographical drama.
Her emotionally raw film examines Mamie Till-Mobley’s (Danielle Deadwyler) pursuit of justice for the brutal murder and lynching of her 14-year-old son, Emmett, in 1955 Mississippi.
Emmett’s story gained infamy after Till-Mobley approved an open casket for his funeral. Her decision to showcase the horrific evils of the Jim Crow segregated south catapulted the passing of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Chukwu’s cinematic heart-stopper features a career-defining performance from Deadwyler, who transforms Till-Mobley’s devastating grief into a profound journey of reluctant activism.
Till received critical acclaim and multiple nominations, including AAFCA, PGA, Gotham, and Women Film Critics Circle wins.
Till is a momentous account of courage through the lens of a Black woman who challenged an inequitable system and changed the world.
Till is available for rental or purchase across various digital platforms.
2. Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul., 2022
Director: Adamma Ebo
Ebo writes, directs, and produces this American mockumentary-style dark comedy based on her 2018 short of the same name.
Lee-Curtis (Sterling K. Brown), a disgraced southern Black mega-church pastor, and Trinitie (Regina Hall), his embattled First Lady, navigate the brutal fallout from a salacious scandal.
The power couple struggles to rebuild their congregation, mounting the most significant comeback anyone has ever seen. Brown and Hall deliver powerhouse performances as broken souls grappling with the aftermath of their errant ways.
Ebo’s incisive satire exposes the permissible hypocrisy and toxicity that permeates organized religion.
It’s a comical yet earnest tale about blind ambition, soul-sucking sacrifice, and crippling devotion rarely told about women of color on the screen.
Ebo’s captivating film garnered her a Rising Star Award from the Black Film Critics Circle.
Honk for Jesus. Save your Soul. is an uncompromising peek into the exploitative nature of mighty men and the valiant women who endure them.
Stream Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul on Amazon Prime Video.
Image: The Woman King, Sony Pictures Releasing
3. The Woman King, 2022
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Bythewood helms this sweeping historical epic about the general of the real-life Dahomey Agojie, an all-female West African military unit from the 18th century.
It’s the first major studio action film to feature a Black female-led cast and be directed by a Black woman.
Bythewood’s riveting saga is a high-octane crowd-pleaser.
Her hardcore action flick boasts intense and precise battle-heavy scenes interlaced with majestic ancestral influences featuring kick-ass Black women.
Bythewood sets a new gold standard within the genre by re-envisioning who gets to be an action hero in Hollywood.
Her multi-award-winning marvel scored BAFTA, SAG, AFI, and Critics Choice nominations. It also took home this year’s AAFCA top prize for Best Picture.
The Woman King casts its royal indigo stamp with a rallying cry for women to know their worth and control their destinies.
(Trigger warning: This film contains sexual assault.)
The Woman King is available for rental or purchase across various digital platforms. It’s also scheduled to premiere on Netflix on February 16th.
4. Nanny, 2022
Director: Nikyatu Jusu
Jusu writes and directs this American psychological horror film.
Aisha (Anna Diop), a Senegalese immigrant nanny, works for a wealthy white New York couple.
Her visions of a malevolent presence threaten her plans of reuniting with her son and jeopardize her shot at the American Dream.
Jusu forgoes the clichéd jump scares for intoxicating supernatural effects in her stunning feature debut.
She infuses this beautiful, stirring film with West African mythology, creating a menacing atmosphere that subverts traditional horror tropes. Her brilliant thriller offers a spine-chilling buildup that rewards audiences with a cathartic release of joy.
Jusu became the second Black woman to win the 2022 Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize in the US Dramatic competition with Nanny. It’s also the first horror film to win the festival’s top honor.
Nanny is a slow brooding burn that brims with deep-seated tension while dissecting painful pasts and lost legacies on the path to healing redemption.
Stream Nanny on Amazon Prime Video.
Image: Saint Omer, Les films du losange
5. Saint Omer, 2022
Director: Alice Diop
Diop writes and directs this gripping French legal drama.
Rama (Kayije Kagame), a pregnant novelist, travels from Paris to Saint-Omer to attend the trial of Laurence (Guslagie Malanda), a Senegalese woman accused of leaving her 15-month-old child on a beach to die.
Malanda delivers a magnetic performance in Diop’s heartbreaking courtroom tale.
Laurence is a troubled, complex Black woman who represents immigrant mothers' crippling loneliness and isolation.
Her harrowing plight takes a devastating mental toll, leading to a fateful, inexcusable decision.
Diop’s astonishing debut serves as a poetic requiem, reflecting the complicated sacrifices of displaced mothers across the globe.
France selected Saint Omer as their entry for the Best International Feature Film for the 95th Academy Awards. It’s also a multi-winner amongst various film critics’ associations.
Saint Omer is a complex, nuanced examination of regret and mental illness with tragic results through the harrowing prism of disillusionment.
Saint Omer is available for rental or purchase across various digital platforms.
6. Aftershock, 2022
Directors: Tonya Lewis Lee, Paula Eiselt
Lee and Eiselt direct and produce this illuminating American documentary film.
The story is told through the filter of Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac, two Black mothers who die needlessly from childbirth complications.
Their partners and families sound a rallying cry around the U.S. maternity mortality epidemic that affects Black women at a staggeringly disproportionate rate.
Lee and Eiselt’s passion project delivers a potent, visceral experience that resonates with every mother. They challenge society to re-imagine a world with safe and fair care for all.
Their shocking film shows when the American healthcare system fails one mother, it fails them all.
This vital film won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award: Impact for Change at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Aftershock is an intense account of the relentless struggles Black women face in a biased, inequitable healthcare system that doesn’t recognize their humanity.
Stream Aftershock on Hulu.
Image: Neptune Frost, Kino Lorber
7. Neptune Frost, 2022
Directors: Anisia Uzeyman, Saul Williams
Williams writes this Afrofuturist sci-fi musical odyssey that he also co-directs with Uzeyman.
Mark Dery, a cultural critic, coined the phrase Afrofuturism. The philosophy explores the intersection of African Diaspora culture with science and technology.
Williams and Uzeyman take viewers on an ethereal journey that catapults the psychedelic Afrofuturism movement into another stratosphere.
The film follows a group of Rwandan coltan miners who form a hacker colony and plot to take over the authoritarian regime.
It also chronicles the non-binary love story between Neptune (Cheryl Isheja), an intersex runaway, and Matalusa (Bertrand Ninteretse), a coltan miner.
Williams’ and Uzeyman’s brilliant feature debut amplifies euphoric performance art through heavy rhythmic percussion underscored with a poignant societal lens.
They deliver a celestial journey that exclaims past trauma, rejects present oppression, and course corrects for an inclusive future with multiple gender expressions.
Their genre-defying avant-garde film received nominations from the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Neptune Frost is a masterful sci-fi gem of breathtaking proportions traveling across epic wavelengths that pulsate within your veins long after the credits roll.
Stream Neptune Frost on the Criterion Channel. It’s also available for rent or purchase across various digital platforms.
Final Thoughts
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shut out women filmmakers with this year’s Oscar nominations.
Women In Film Los Angeles slammed the organization for its gross oversight.
“Once again, Academy voters have shown that they don’t value women’s voices, shutting us out of the Best Director nominations. An Academy Award is more than a gold statue; it’s a career accelerator that can lead to continued work and increased compensation.” — Women In Film Los Angeles via Variety
Studies confirm Hollywood gives Black female filmmakers fewer opportunities, smaller budgets, and less recognition when they succeed.
The power to reverse this abysmal trend lies with us.
When we seek these phenomenal creatives and watch their extraordinary work, we validate that Black female-centric stories matter to viewers, regardless of race.
The number of Black women behind the camera won’t change unless we support, champion, and honor more WOC filmmakers.
Bythewood (The Woman King) addresses this gap as a reflection of Hollywood’s refusal to recognize Black excellence.
“But the Academy made a very loud statement, and for me to stay quiet is to accept that statement. So I agreed to speak up on behalf of Black women whose work has been dismissed in the past, is dismissed now, like Alice Diop and Saint Omer, Chinonye Chukwu and Till — and for those who haven’t even stepped on a set yet.” — Gina Prince-Bythewood via The Hollywood Reporter
While change is often challenging, it’s necessary for a more inclusive cinematic future—as Bythewood and history confirm.
Remember to subscribe and spread the word! Another installment in the series is coming next week.