Motion picture award for motion picture
The Black Reel Award for Outstanding Film is one of the Black Reel Awards presented annually. This award goes to the producers of the film. Outstanding Film is the final award of the night at each ceremony. There have been 115 films nominated for Outstanding Film and 23 winners.
History
Outstanding Film and Outstanding Director
The Black Reel Award for Outstanding Picture and Black Reel Award for Outstanding Director have been closely linked throughout their history. Of the 22 films that have won Outstanding Film, 10 have also been awarded for Outstanding Director. Only six films have been awarded Outstanding Film without receiving an Outstanding Director nomination: The Hurricane directed by Norman Jewison , Ray directed by Taylor Hackford (2005), Crash directed by Paul Haggis (2006), Dreamgirls directed by Bill Condon (2017), The Help directed by Tate Taylor (2012) and Dolemite Is My Name directed by Craig Brewer (2020). Note: These film directors were deemed ineligible for an Outstanding Director nomination due to not being of African-American of African descent.
Language and country of origin
Only one non-English language film has been nominated in the category: The Intouchables (French, 2013). Five films wholly financed outside of the United States has been nominated for Outstanding Film: Attack the Block (2011), Shame (2011), The Intouchables (2013), Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (2013) & Belle (2014).
Genres
The Princess and the Frog and Soul are the only animated films to be nominated for Outstanding Film. Black Panther remains as the only Comic Book film to be nominated and win Outstanding Film. Get Out became the first horror film to win Outstanding Film and one of three films along with From Hell and Us to be nominated in this category.
Lightning in a Bottle is the only documentary film to win. It won in the first and only winner in the Outstanding Comedy/Musical film at the 5th Annual Black Reel Awards . Standing in the Shadows of Motown , Tupac: Resurrection , Fade to Black and 13th were the other documentaries to be nominated in this category.
Dreamgirls is the only musical to win this category. To date, The Book of Eli and Attack the Block are the only two Sci-Fi films to be nominated for Outstanding Film.
Winners and nominees
Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold .
2000s
Year
Film
Distributor
Producer(s)
Ref
2000
The Hurricane
Universal Studios
Norman Jewison , John Ketchem and Armyan Bernstein
[1]
The Best Man
Universal Pictures
Bill Carraro, Sam Kitt and Spike Lee
Life
Universal Pictures
Eddie Murphy and Brian Grazer
The Wood
Paramount Pictures
David Gale, Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa
2001
Love & Basketball
New Line Cinema
Spike Lee and Sam Kitt
[2]
Bamboozled
New Line Cinema
John Kilik and Spike Lee
Girlfight
Screen Gems
Maggie Renzi, Martha Griffin and Sarah Green
Men of Honor
20th Century Fox
Bill Badalato and Robert Teitel
Remember the Titans
Walt Disney Pictures
Chad Oman and Jerry Bruckheimer
2002
Training Day
Warner Bros. Pictures
Bruce Berman and Davis Guggenheim
[3]
Ali
Columbia Pictures
Michael Mann , Jon Peters and James Lassiter
Baby Boy
Columbia Pictures
John Singleton
The Brothers
Screen Gems
Doug McHenry and Paddy Cullen
From Hell
20th Century Fox
Don Murphy , Amy Robinson and Jane Hamsher
2003
Antwone Fisher
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Denzel Washington , Randa Haines and Todd Black
[4]
25th Hour
Touchstone Pictures
John Kilik, Spike Lee and Julia Chasman
Barbershop
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
George Tillman Jr. , Mark Brown and Robert Teitel
Drumline
20th Century Fox
Timothy M. Bourne, Wendy Finerman and Jody Gerson
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Artisan Entertainment
Paul Justman and Alan Slutsky
2004
Out of Time
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Neal H. Moritz , Damien Saccani and Jesse Beaton
[5]
The Fighting Temptations
Paramount Pictures
Loretha C. Jones, Benny Medina and Jeff Pollack
The Italian Job
Paramount Pictures
Donald De Line
S.W.A.T.
Columbia Pictures
Neal H. Moritz , Chris Lee and Dan Halsted
Tupac: Resurrection
Paramount Pictures
Preston Holmes, Karoyln Ali and Lauren Lazin
2005
Drama
Ray
Universal Pictures
Howard Baldwin , Taylor Hackford and Bob Yari
[6]
BAADASSSSS!
Sony Pictures Classics
Mario Van Peebles
I, Robot
20th Century Fox
Topher Dow, Laurence Mark and Wyck Godfrey
Comedy / Musical
Lightning in a Bottle
Sony Pictures
Alex Gibney , Margaret Bodde and Jack Gulick
Barbershop 2: Back in Business
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
George Tillman Jr. , Robert Teitel and Alex Gartner
Fade to Black
Paramount Vantage
Bob Ezrin , Rich Kleiman and Justin Wilkes
2006
Crash
Lionsgate
Paul Haggis , Cathy Schulman and Bob Yari
[7]
Coach Carter
Touchstone Pictures
David Gale, Brian Robbins and Michael Tollin
Four Brothers
Columbia Pictures
Lorenzo di Bonaventura
Hitch
Columbia Pictures
James Lassiter , Will Smith and Teddy Zee
Hustle & Flow
Paramount Classics
John Singleton and Stephanie Allain
2007
Dreamgirls
DreamWorks
Laurence Mark
[8]
Akeelah and the Bee
Warner Bros.
Sid Ganis , Laurence Fishburne and Michael Romersa
Inside Man
Universal Pictures
Brian Grazer and Jonathan Filley
The Pursuit of Happyness
Columbia Pictures
James Lassiter , Todd Black and Steve Tisch
Something New
Focus Features
Stephanie Allain
2008
Cadillac Records
TriStar Pictures
Andrew Lack and Sofia Sondervan
[9]
Miracle at St. Anna
Touchstone Pictures
Spike Lee , Luigi Musini and Roberto Cicutto
The Secret Life of Bees
Fox Searchlight Pictures
James Lassiter , Will Smith and Lauren Shuler Donner
Seven Pounds
Columbia Pictures
James Lassiter , Will Smith and Steve Tisch
Traitor
Overture Films
Don Cheadle , David Hoberman and Todd Lieberman
2010s
Year
Film
Distributor
Producer(s)
Ref
2010
Precious
Lionsgate
Lee Daniels , Gary Magness and Sarah Siegel-Magness
[10]
American Violet
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Bill Haney
The Blind Side
Warner Bros.
Broderick Johnson , Andrew Kosove and Gil Netter
Invictus
Warner Bros.
Clint Eastwood , Mace Neufeld and Robert Lorenz
The Princess and the Frog
Walt Disney Pictures
Peter Del Vecho
2011
Night Catches Us
Magnolia Pictures
Jason Orans, Ron Simons and Sean Costello
[11]
The Book of Eli
Warner Bros. Pictures
Denzel Washington , Joel Silver and Andrew Kosove
Brooklyn's Finest
Overture Films
John Thompson, John Langley and Elle Cohn
For Colored Girls
Lionsgate
Tyler Perry , Roger M. Bobb and Paul Hall
Just Wright
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Debra Martin Chase , Queen Latifah and Shakim Compere
2012
The Help
DreamWorks
Chris Columbus, Brunson Green and Michael Baranthan
[12]
Attack the Block
Screen Gems
Nira Park and James Wilson
Jumping the Broom
TriStar Pictures
Elizabeth Hunter, Tracy Edmonds and T.D. Jakes
Pariah
Focus Features
Nekisha Cooper
Shame
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Emile Sherman and Iain Canning
2013
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Josh Penn, Dan Javey and Michael Gottwald
[13] [14]
Django Unchained
The Weinstein Company
Reginald Hudlin , Stacey Shear and Pilar Savone
Flight
Paramount Pictures
Robert Zemeckis , Steve Starkey and Laurie MacDonald
The Intouchables
The Weinstein Company
Nicolas Duval-Adassovsky, Yann Zenou and Laurent Zeitoun
Middle of Nowhere
AAFRM
Paul Garnes, Ava DuVernay and Howard Barish
2014
12 Years a Slave
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Brad Pitt , Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner
[15] [16]
42
Warner Bros. Pictures
Thomas Tull
The Butler
The Weinstein Company
Pamela Oas Williams, Laura Ziskin and Lee Daniels
Fruitvale Station
The Weinstein Company
Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
20th Century Fox
David M. Thompson and Anant Singh
2015
Selma
Paramount Pictures
Christian Colson , Oprah Winfrey and Dede Gardner
[17]
Belle
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Damian Jones
Beyond the Lights
Relativity Media
Stephanie Allain , Reggie Rock Bythewood and Ryan Kavanaugh
Dear White People
Lionsgate
Effie Brown , Ann Le and Julia Lebedev
Top Five
Paramount Pictures
Scott Rudin and Eli Bush
2016
Creed
Warner Bros. Pictures
Irwin Winkler , Robert Chartoff and Charles Winkler
[18]
Beasts of No Nation
Bleecker Street
Amy Kaufman, Cary Joji Fukunaga and Daniela Taplin Lundberg
Chi-Raq
Roadside Attractions
Spike Lee
Concussion
Columbia Pictures
Ridley Scott , Giannina Facio and David Woltroff
Straight Outta Compton
Universal Pictures
Ice Cube , Tomica Woods-Wright and Matt Alvarez
2017
Moonlight
A24
Dede Gardner , Jeremy Kleiner and Adele Romanski
[19]
13th
Netflix
Spencer Averick , Howard Barish and Ava DuVernay
Fences
Paramount Pictures
Todd Black , Scott Rudin and Denzel Washington
Loving
Focus Features
Nancy Buirski, Ged Doherty , Colin Firth , Sarah Green , Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub
Manchester by the Sea
Roadside Attractions
Lauren Beck , Matt Damon , Chris Moore , Kimberly Steward and Kevin J. Walsh
2018
Get Out
Universal Pictures
Sean McKittrick , Jason Blum , Edward H. Hamm Jr. and Jordan Peele
[20] [21]
Detroit
Annapurna Pictures
Kathryn Bigelow , Mark Boal , Matthew Budman, Megan Ellison and Colin Wilson
Girls Trip
Universal Pictures
Malcolm D. Lee and Will Packer
Marshall
Open Road Films
Reginald Hudlin , Jonathan Sanger and Paula Wagner
Mudbound
Netflix
Carl Effenson, Sally Jo Effenson, Cassian Elwes , Charles King, Christopher Lemole, Kim Roth and Tim Zajaros
2019
Black Panther
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Kevin Feige
[22] [23]
BlacKkKlansman
Focus Features
Jason Blum , Spike Lee , Raymond Mansfield, Sean McKittrick , Jordan Peele , and Shaun Redick
Green Book
Universal Pictures
Jim Burke , Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly , Nick Vallelonga , and Charles B. Wessler
If Beale Street Could Talk
Annapurna Pictures
Megan Ellison , Dede Gardner , Jeremy Kleiner , Adele Romanski , Sara Murphy, and Barry Jenkins
Widows
20th Century Fox
Steve McQueen , Iain Canning , Emile Sherman , and Arnon Milchan
2020s
Year
Film
Distributor
Producer(s)
Ref
2020
Dolemite Is My Name
Netflix
Eddie Murphy , John Davis and John Fox
[24]
Just Mercy
Warner Bros. Pictures
Asher Goldstein and Gil Netter
Queen & Slim
Universal Pictures
Melina Matsoukas , Lena Waithe , Pamela Addy, Michelle Knudsen, Brad Weston and James Frey
Us
Universal Pictures
Jordan Peele , Sean McKittrick , Ian Cooper and Jason Blum
Waves
A24
Trey Edward Schults, Kevin Turen and James Wilson
2021
Judas and the Black Messiah
Warner Bros. Pictures
Shaka King , Charles D. King and Shaka King
[25]
Da 5 Bloods
Netflix
Spike Lee , Lloyd Levin , Jon Kilik and Beatriz Levin
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Netflix
Denzel Washington , Todd Black and Dany Wolf
One Night in Miami...
Amazon Studios
Keith Calder , Jess Wu Calder & Jody Klein
Soul
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Dana Murray
2022
King Richard
Warner Bros.
Will Smith , Tim White & Trevor White
[26]
The Harder They Fall
Netflix
Lawrence Bender, Jay-Z , James Lassiter and Jeymes Samuel
Passing
Netflix
Nina Yang Bongiovi , Forest Whitaker , Rebecca Hall & Margot Hand
The Tragedy of Macbeth
A24
Joel Coen , Frances McDormand , Robert Graf
West Side Story
20th Century Studios
Steven Spielberg , Kristie Macosko Krieger , Kevin McCollum
Multiple nominations and wins
Multiple wins
3 Wins
Multiple nominations
Production companies with multiple nominations and wins
References
Current awards (Film) Current awards (Independent & Next Generation) Current awards (Television – Drama) Current awards (Television – Comedy) Current awards (Television – TV Movie or Limited Series) Current awards (Television – Documentary/Specials & Music) Retired awards Ceremonies