Slate's The Black Film Canon
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Seven years ago—when #OscarsSoWhite was a hot topic and Obama was still president—Slate published the Black Film Canon, a list of 50 of the best and most culturally significant films by Black directors. Critics, scholars, and the filmmakers themselves, including Ava DuVernay, Robert Townsend, and Gina Prince-Bythewood, weighed in with their picks. The result was a collection of films spanning almost 100 years, several continents, and a wide range of genres and styles: from Oscar Micheaux’s silent-era classic Within Our Gates to Djibril Diop Mambéty’s freewheeling road-trip movie Touki Bouki to F. Gary Gray’s iconic comedy Friday.
And then, just months after the Black Film Canon came out, Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight made history with a Best Picture Oscar win and Jordan Peele’s Get Out spawned a new cultural lexicon while reigniting the long-neglected Black horror genre. Just a year after that, Black Panther became an unprecedented box-office juggernaut. Since then, many other Black filmmakers, both seasoned and on the come up, have seized on an increasing number of opportunities to tell stories in bold ways: creators like Janicza Bravo, Boots Riley, and Garrett Bradley. Some adjudicators of cinematic prestige—like the once-a-decade Sight and Sound critics’ poll and the Criterion Collection—have finally come around to acknowledging important Black filmmakers after decades of all but ignoring them. Simply put, we’re now living in a different world for Black film.
Yet, as ever, barriers remain. This year’s Oscars saw yet another nominations controversy. The forces that have worked to sideline Black filmmakers have not disappeared. Even as the landscape has shifted, there’s more power than ever in understanding the films that brought us to this moment and the new ones taking us into the future. So it seems only fitting to revisit the Black Film Canon and update it to reflect the rush of great movies that have arrived since 2016, as well as reconsider the films made before 2016 that we missed the first time around. This time, in partnership with NPR, Slate polled a group of experts—a mix of industry and critical authorities from our previous list, as well as some newcomers—and we’re thrilled to present the results in our New Black Film Canon. Use it as an opportunity to appreciate the breadth of artistry Black filmmakers have brought to the movies—and as an unbeatable viewing list deep with surprising treasures.
The project excludes movies about black people but directed by non-blacks (A Raisin in the Sun, Coming to America). It is also not a poll: it’s an unranked list presented chronologically.
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49 -6
12 Years a Slave
2013, in 22 top lists Check -
20 -3
Do the Right Thing
1989, in 25 top lists Check -
42 -6
25th Hour
2002, in 7 top lists Check -
27 -5
Boyz n the Hood
1991, in 9 top lists Check -
59 new
Get Out
2017, in 16 top lists Check -
31 -5
Malcolm X
1992, in 7 top lists Check -
58 new
Moonlight
2016, in 13 top lists Check -
64 new
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2018, in 21 top lists Check -
54 -5
Creed
2015, in 4 top lists Check -
61 new
Black Panther
2018, in 9 top lists Check -
8 -3
Shaft
1971, in 10 top lists Check -
37 -6
Friday
1995, in 2 top lists Check -
50 -4
Selma
2014, in 7 top lists Check -
36 -6
Devil in a Blue Dress
1995, in 4 top lists Check -
11 -2
Touki bouki
1973 — a.k.a. Journey of the Hyena, in 9 top lists Check -
7 -1
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
1971, in 12 top lists Check -
1 -
Within Our Gates
1920, in 7 top lists Check -
4 -1
La noire de...
1966 — a.k.a. Black Girl, in 9 top lists Check -
14 -2
Killer of Sheep
1978, in 14 top lists Check -
52 -7
Fruitvale Station
2013, in 4 top lists Check -
53 -6
Timbuktu
2014, in 9 top lists Check -
26 -5
To Sleep with Anger
1990, in 8 top lists Check -
40 -6
Eve's Bayou
1997, in 6 top lists Check -
29 -5
Juice
1992, in 1 top list Check -
72 new
Nope
2022, in 3 top lists -
44 -6
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
2006, in 6 top lists Check -
3 -1
The Blood of Jesus
1941, in 2 top lists Check -
47 -6
Pariah
2011, in 7 top lists Check -
63 new
Sorry to Bother You
2018, in 4 top lists -
5 new
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
1968, in 7 top lists Check -
41 -6
Love & Basketball
2000, in 6 top lists Check -
9 -2
Super Fly
1972, in 4 top lists Check -
65 new
Atlantique
2019 — a.k.a. Atlantics, in 6 top lists -
13 -2
Car Wash
1976, in 2 top lists Check -
2 new
Eleven P.M.
1928, in 1 top list Check -
56 -6
O.J.: Made in America
2016, in 7 top lists Check -
22 -4
Tongues Untied
1989, in 11 top lists Check -
34 -6
Crooklyn
1994, in 3 top lists Check -
28 -5
Daughters of the Dust
1991, in 9 top lists Check -
6 -2
The Learning Tree
1969, in 4 top lists Check -
18 -3
Rue Cases Nègres
1983 — a.k.a. Sugar Cane Alley, in 4 top lists Check -
68 new
Small Axe: Lovers Rock
2020, in 6 top lists -
70 new
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution...
2021, in 4 top lists -
39 -6
The Watermelon Woman
1996, in 7 top lists Check -
12 -2
Cooley High
1975, in 4 top lists Check -
60 new
Girls Trip
2017, in 1 top list -
24 -5
House Party
1990, in 2 top lists Check -
57 new
I Am Not Your Negro
2016, in 6 top lists Check -
25 -5
Mo' Better Blues
1990, in 1 top list Check -
74 new
Saint Omer
2022, in 3 top lists
Last updated on Feb 27, 2023 by Fergenaprido; source