Celebrating Black Artists in the Film Industry | Part 3 of 4

In honor of Black History Month, we continue our four-part series that remembers the legends who paved the way for today’s performers and highlights breakout stars of the last decade who continue their legacies and represent the rich diversity of Black culture and history. Part three looks ahead to this year’s Oscars, and the loss of one of the most influential Black directors.

Looking ahead to this year’s Oscars ceremony, Danny Glover has been selected to receive the coveted Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. He may be best known as Roger Murtaugh in the “Lethal Weapon” films, but he is also a prominent activist who uses his fame to call attention to injustice around the world. Last year, the academy honored the multitalented Tyler Perry with the award.

Will Smith is heavily favored to win Best Actor this year for his performance as the father of young tennis prodigies Serena and Venus Williams in “King Richard.” Denzel Washington is also expected to garner his 10th Oscar nomination (ninth as an actor) for “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” In the Supporting Actress category, experts predict nominations for Afro-Latina Broadway star Ariana DeBose for “West Side Story,” Aunjanue Ellis for “King Richard,” and Ruth Negga for “Passing.” The Ethiopian-Irish Negga was previously nominated as the lead actress in 2016’s “Loving,” which told the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the plaintiffs in the 1967 Supreme Court decision that invalidated state laws prohibiting interracial marriage. In “Passing,” she plays a light-skinned Black woman who “passes” as white in 1920s New York City, going so far as to keep her secret from her husband.

To date, no Black person has won an Oscar for Best Director. John Singleton was the first to be nominated (and at 24 remains the youngest nominee of any race) for 1991’s “Boyz n the Hood.” The coming-of-age story about four young Black men (played by Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, and Laurence Fishburne) in South Central Los Angeles won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture. Since then, Lee Daniels (“Precious”), Steve McQueen (Best Picture winner “12 Years a Slave”), Barry Jenkins (Best Picture winner “Moonlight”), Jordan Peele (“Get Out”), and Spike Lee (“BlacKkKlansman”) have earned Oscar nominations.

While no Black woman has been recognized by the Academy yet as a director, in 2015 Ava DuVernay became the first to direct a film nominated for Best Picture (2014’s “Selma”). That film, which tells the true story of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches led by Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, and John Lewis, won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Motion Picture and nabbed John Legend an Oscar for Best Song for “Glory.” Several years later, he won the EGOT, the second Black performer to do so. DuVernay also created, co-wrote, and directed Netflix’s critically acclaimed miniseries “When They See Us,” filmed at Broadway Stages’ Arthur Kill facility on Staten Island.

Last year the world sadly lost one of its most influential Black directors when Melvin Van Peebles died at the age of 89. 1971’s “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” is considered by film historians to be the first blaxploitation film, and in 2020 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Made for just $50,000, the film earned over $15 million.