Black Reel Award for Outstanding Film

Black Reel Award for Outstanding Motion Picture
Country	United States
Presented by	The Black Reel Awards (BRAs)
First awarded	Black Reel Awards of 2000
Most recent winner	American Fiction (2024)
Website	blackreelawards.com

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 120 films nominated for Outstanding Film and 24 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) and Belle (2014).

Genres

The Princess and the Frog, Soul, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are the only animated films to be nominated for Outstanding Film. Black Panther remains as the only comic book film to win Outstanding Film; Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are the only other comic book films to be nominated. 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 science fiction 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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
	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
2023
	The Woman King	Sony Pictures	Maria Bello, Viola Davis, Cathy Schulman, and Julius Tennon
	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures	Kevin Feige and Nate Moore
	Devotion	Sony Pictures	Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, Thad Luckinbill, and Trent Luckinbill
	Nope	Universal Pictures	Jordan Peele and Ian Cooper
	Till	United Artists Releasing	Keith Beauchamp, Barbara Broccoli, Whoopi Goldberg, Michael Reilly, and Thomas Levine
2024
	American Fiction	Amazon MGM Studios	Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson, and Jermaine Johnson
	The Color Purple	Warner Bros. Pictures	Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Scott Sanders, and Quincy Jones
	Origin	Neon	Paul Garnes and Ava DuVernay
	Rustin	Netflix	Bruce Cohen, Tonia Davis, and George C. Wolfe
	Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse	Sony Pictures	Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Amy Pascal, and Avi Arad

Multiple nominations and wins

Multiple wins

3 wins

• Dede Gardner
• Jeremy Kleiner

2 wins

• Cathy Schulman

Multiple nominations

8 nominations

• Spike Lee

6 nominations

• James Lassiter

5 nominations

• Todd Black
• Will Smith

4 nominations

• Dede Gardner
• Jeremy Kleiner
• Jordan Peele
• Denzel Washington

3 nominations

• Stephanie Allain
• Jason Blum
• Ava DuVernay
• David Gale
• Jon Kilik
• Sean McKittrick
• Robert Teitel

2 nominations

• Howard Barish
• Nina Yang Bongiovi
• Jason Blumenthal
• Iain Canning
• Don Cheadle
• Ian Cooper
• Lee Daniels
• John Davis
• Megan Ellison
• Kevin Feige
• Paul Garnes
• Brian Grazer
• Reginald Hudlin
• Broderick Johnson
• Charles D. King
• Andrew A. Kosove
• Laurence Mark
• Steve McQueen
• Arnon Milchan
• Neal H. Moritz
• Eddie Murphy
• Gil Netter
• Adele Romanski
• Scott Rudin
• Cathy Schulman
• Emile Sherman
• John Singleton
• Jeffrey Silver
• Steven Spielberg
• George Tillman Jr.
• Steve Tisch
• Lena Waithe
• Forest Whitaker
• James Wilson
• Oprah Winfrey

Production companies with multiple nominations and wins

Production Company	Nominations	Wins
Universal Pictures	11	3
Paramount Pictures	11	1
Warner Bros. Pictures	10	3
Netflix	9	1
Searchlight Pictures	6	3
Walt Disney Pictures	6	2
Columbia Pictures	6	0
Lionsgate	5	2
Sony Pictures Releasing	5	2
20th Century Fox / 20th Century Studios	5	0
The Weinstein Company	5	0
Focus Features	4	0
A24	3	1
MGM	3	1
New Line Cinema	3	1
Roadside Attractions	3	0
Screen Gems	3	0
New Line Cinema	2	1
Overture Films	2	0
Annapurna Pictures	2	0
TriStar Pictures	2	0
Amazon MGM Studios	2	0