104 films for beginners; by black filmmakers and/or about black communities. See below to find out how this list was curated and ranked.
PLEASE DONATE:
Before everything, please donate to at least one of these organizations, if you can:
Black Lives Matter
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Freedom Fund
LGBTQ+ Freedom Fund
SNAP4Freedom
Black AIDS Institute
Higher Heights for America
WHY I CURATED THIS LIST:
As someone over-interested in films and film lists, I wanted to contribute to the awareness and education of the non-black audience. Yet as a non-black person, I feel it is wrong and problematic to recommend from the non-sufficient pool of black movies I have watched in the past. I sadly realized how many essential films…
104 films for beginners; by black filmmakers and/or about black communities. See below to find out how this list was curated and ranked.
PLEASE DONATE:
Before everything, please donate to at least one of these organizations, if you can:
Black Lives Matter
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Freedom Fund
LGBTQ+ Freedom Fund
SNAP4Freedom
Black AIDS Institute
Higher Heights for America
WHY I CURATED THIS LIST:
As someone over-interested in films and film lists, I wanted to contribute to the awareness and education of the non-black audience. Yet as a non-black person, I feel it is wrong and problematic to recommend from the non-sufficient pool of black movies I have watched in the past. I sadly realized how many essential films from the black cinema I have not seen and decided to start with my own improvement. I searched for Black Cinema lists of various publications and in most cases, I did not consider the lists curated by exclusively non-black authors, critics, organizations, or communities.
HOW THIS LIST WAS CURATED:
- This list only includes films from the 2000s and 2010s, for now.
- This list only includes films by black filmmakers and/or about black communities.
- Resources (listed below) include 7 online film lists focusing on Black Cinema, and 3 award lists focusing primarily on Black Cinema. (Counted only the award winners and Best Picture nominations.)
- The ranking is made by simply giving 1/[number of films on that list] points to each film on each list, and taking the sum of the points. (In other words; points sum up to 1 for each list.)
- Excluded the films only appear on one list or on solely the awards lists.
- As the 99th place has a 6-way tie, there are 104 films on the list.
- 12 Years a Slave has the highest point (0,237). American Gangster, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, Blindspotting, Clemency, The Hate U Give, and Support the Girls has the 99th highest point. (0,020)
RESOURCES:
"The 50 greatest movies by black directors."
by Aisha Harris and Dan Kois on Slate.
includes 16 titles from 2000-2019
"The Best Black American Films of the 21st Century, From ‘Straight Outta Compton’ to ‘Black Panther’"
by Jacqueline Coley, Jenna Marotta, Anne Thompson, Wilson Morales and Constance Gibbs on IndieWire.
includes 25 titles from 2000-2019
"Notable Films by Black Directors"
by Kenji on Mubi.
includes 46 titles from 2000-2019
"Black Cinema, in the Aftermath of Spike Lee"
by Malik on Mubi.
includes 46 titles from 2000-2019
"The Best of Black Independent Cinema"
by blacklaurelfilms on Mubi.
includes 15 titles from 2000-2019
"The 100 Best Black Movies of the 21st Century"
by Rotten Tomatoes, ranked by the platform's collective "Tomatometer".
includes 100 titles from 2000-2019
"47 Black Movies on Netflix That You'll Want to Watch on Repeat"
by McKenzie Jean-Philippe on The Oprah Magazine.
includes 42 titles from 2000-2019
List of Black Reel Awards winners on IMDb
organized since 2000, includes 153 titles (winners in all categories, and Best Picture nominees included) from 2000-2019
List of African-American Film Critics Association Awards winners on IMDb
organized since 2003, includes 104 titles from 2003-2019
List of Black Film Critics Circle Awards winners on IMDb
organized since 2011, includes 49 titles from 2011-2019
