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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1 -
Within Our Gates
1920, in 7 top lists Check -
2 new
Eleven P.M.
1928, in 1 top list Check -
3 -1
The Blood of Jesus
1941, in 2 top lists Check -
4 -1
La noire de...
1966 — a.k.a. Black Girl, in 9 top lists Check -
5 new
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
1968, in 7 top lists Check -
6 -2
The Learning Tree
1969, in 4 top lists Check -
7 -1
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song
1971, in 12 top lists Check -
8 -3
Shaft
1971, in 10 top lists Check -
9 -2
Super Fly
1972, in 4 top lists Check -
10 -2
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
1973, in 2 top lists Check -
11 -2
Touki bouki
1973 — a.k.a. Journey of the Hyena, in 9 top lists Check -
12 -2
Cooley High
1975, in 4 top lists Check -
13 -2
Car Wash
1976, in 2 top lists Check -
14 -2
Killer of Sheep
1978, in 14 top lists Check -
15 -2
Ashes and Embers
1982, in 1 top list Check -
16 new
Cane River
1982, in 1 top list Check -
17 -3
Losing Ground
1982, in 4 top lists Check -
18 -3
Rue Cases Nègres
1983 — a.k.a. Sugar Cane Alley, in 4 top lists Check -
19 -3
Hollywood Shuffle
1987, in 2 top lists Check -
20 -3
Do the Right Thing
1989, in 25 top lists Check -
21 new
Looking for Langston
1989, in 4 top lists Check -
22 -4
Tongues Untied
1989, in 11 top lists Check -
23 new
Chameleon Street
1989, in 3 top lists Check -
24 -5
House Party
1990, in 2 top lists Check -
25 -5
Mo' Better Blues
1990, in 1 top list Check -
26 -5
To Sleep with Anger
1990, in 8 top lists Check -
27 -5
Boyz n the Hood
1991, in 9 top lists Check -
28 -5
Daughters of the Dust
1991, in 9 top lists Check -
29 -5
Juice
1992, in 1 top list Check -
30 -5
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.
1992, in 1 top list Check -
31 -5
Malcolm X
1992, in 7 top lists Check -
32 -5
Sankofa
1993, in 2 top lists Check -
33 new
Alma's Rainbow
1994, in 1 top list Check -
34 -6
Crooklyn
1994, in 3 top lists Check -
35 -6
I Like It Like That
1994, in 1 top list Check -
36 -6
Devil in a Blue Dress
1995, in 4 top lists Check -
37 -6
Friday
1995, in 2 top lists Check -
38 -6
Waiting to Exhale
1995, in 2 top lists Check -
39 -6
The Watermelon Woman
1996, in 7 top lists Check -
40 -6
Eve's Bayou
1997, in 6 top lists Check -
41 -6
Love & Basketball
2000, in 6 top lists Check -
42 -6
25th Hour
2002, in 7 top lists Check -
43 -6
Their Eyes Were Watching God
2005, in 1 top list Check -
44 -6
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
2006, in 6 top lists Check -
45 -6
Medicine for Melancholy
2008, in 2 top lists Check -
46 -6
Night Catches Us
2010, in 1 top list Check -
47 -6
Pariah
2011, in 7 top lists Check -
48 -6
Middle of Nowhere
2012, in 1 top list Check -
49 -6
12 Years a Slave
2013, in 22 top lists Check -
50 -4
Selma
2014, in 7 top lists Check
Last updated on Feb 27, 2023 by Fergenaprido; source