2022 was full of some really great movies especially those by Black directors. From dark comedies to thought-provoking satire and every sci-fi, thriller, and historical piece in-between. These Black directed projects are continuously pushing the boundaries of where our imagination can go.
READ: 1992-2022: 30 Movies That Turn 30 in 2022
The long-term goal is that it becomes a norm for films to be direct by Black directors and in order to do that we have to support. So take a look at the films and documentaries by Black directors that were released in 2022 and check out the ones you have yet to see.
(This list will be updated if we unintentionally missed a project so feel free to check back)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Queen Ramonda, Shuri, M’Baku, Okoye and the Dora Milaje fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death. As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with Nakia and Everett Ross to forge a new path for their beloved kingdom.
Director: Ryan Coogler
Box Office: $789M
Devotion
A pair of U.S. Navy fighter pilots risk their lives during the Korean War and become some of the Navy’s most celebrated wingmen.
Director: J.D. Dillard
Box Office: $19M
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
In the aftermath of a huge scandal, Trinitie Childs, the first lady of a prominent Southern Baptist Mega Church, attempts to help her pastor-husband, Lee-Curtis Childs, rebuild their congregation.
Director: Adamma Ebo and Adanne Ebo
Box Office: $2.5M
Emergency
Ready for a night of legendary partying, three college students must weigh the pros and cons of calling the police when faced with an unexpected situation.
Director: Carey Williams
Master
Three women strive to find their place at an elite Northeastern university. When anonymous racist attacks target a Black freshman, who insists she is being haunted by ghosts, each woman must determine where the real menace lies.
Director: Mariama Diallo
The Devil You Know
Ex-con Marcus Cowans is trying to turn over a new leaf with the support of his loving family. After learning that one of his brothers may have been involved in a horrific crime, Marcus grapples with the limits of loyalty. He and his family, increasingly weary of the justice system’s failings, soon end up in the cross hairs of a seasoned but jaded detective.
Director: Charles Murray
Box Office: $92M
The Woman King
A historical epic inspired by true events that took place in The Kingdom of Dahomey, one of the most powerful states of Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Box Office: $92M
Nope
The residents of a lonely gulch in inland California bear witness to an uncanny and chilling discovery.
Director: Jordan Peele
Box Office: $171M
Nanny
Immigrant nanny Aisha, piecing together a new life in New York City while caring for the child of an Upper East Side family, is forced to confront a concealed truth that threatens to shatter her precarious American Dream.
Director: Nikyatu Jusu
Box Office:
Alice
Alice yearns for freedom as an enslaved woman under iron rule by the brutal owner of a rural Georgia plantation. After a violent clash, she flees through the neighboring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway, soon discovering the year is actually 1973. Rescued on the roadside by … MORE
Director: Krystin Ver Linden
Box Office: $373k
Is That Black Enough for You?!?
Film critic Elvis Mitchell examines the craft and power of African American films released from the landmark era of the 1970s.
Director: Elvis Mitchell
Rise
After emigrating from Nigeria to Greece, the Antetokounmpos struggle to care for their five children. The brothers play basketball with a local team and discover their great abilities on the court.
Director: Akin Omotoso
Till
The true story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who was brutally lynched in 1955 while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
Director: Chinonye Chukwu
Box Office: $9M
A Jazzman’s Blues
A tale of forbidden love and family drama unravels 40 years of secrets and lies in the Deep South.
Director: Tyler Perry
On the Count of Three
Two friends, both depressed, decide to end it all.
Director: Jerrod Carmichael
Box Office: $62k
On the Come Up
Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Facing controversies and with an eviction notice staring down her family, Bri doesn’t just want to make it, she has to make it.
Director: Sanaa Lathan
Box Office: $236k
Say Hey Willie Mays
From the Negro League to Major League Baseball, Willie Mays becomes one of America’s first Black superstars to help erode racial barriers and move the sport forward.
Director: Nelson George
End of the Road
A cross-country road trip becomes a highway to hell for Brenda, her two kids and her brother, Reggie. After witnessing a murder, the family finds itself in the crosshairs of a killer. Now alone in the desert, Brenda fights to keep her family alive.
Director: Millicent Shelton
Beauty
A young singer on the brink of a promising career finds herself torn between a domineering family, industry pressures and her love for her girlfriend.
Director: Andrew Dosunmu
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Homecoming
Madea’s back, and she’s not putting up with any nonsense as family drama erupts at her great-grandson’s college graduation celebration.
Director: Tyler Perry
The Inspection
Rejected by his mother, a young gay man finds unexpected strength, camaraderie and support after he joins the Marines.
Director: Elegance Bratton
Box Office: $385k
Anything’s Possible
A high school student with a crush summons the courage to ask a transsexual teen out on a date, knowing the drama it could cause.
Director: Billy Porter
Box Office:
Sidney
Historians and film experts honors the legendary Sidney Poitier and his legacy as an iconic actor, filmmaker and activist at the centre of Hollywood and the Civil Rights Movement.
Director: Reginald Hudlin
Box Office:
Emancipation
Peter, a slave, flees a plantation in Louisiana after he was whipped within an inch of his life. He has to outwit cold-blooded hunters and the unforgiving swamps of Louisiana on a torturous journey north.
Director: Antoine Fuqua
I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Discovered by record executive Clive Davis, Whitney Houston rises from obscurity to international fame in the 1980s to become one of the greatest singers of her generation.
Director: Kasi Lemmons
Neptune Frost
A group of escaped coltan miners forms an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective in the hilltops of Burundi. They soon attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime that’s exploiting the region’s natural resources — and its people.
Director: Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
This definitive documentary, directed by Sacha Jenkins, honors Armstrong’s legacy as a founding father of jazz, one of the first internationally known and beloved stars, and a cultural ambassador of the United States. The film shows how Armstrong’s own life spans the shift from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement, and how he became a lightning rod figure in that turbulent era.
Director: Sacha Jenkins
A Chiara
A 15-year-old girl lives in Calabria, Italy, and is suddenly abandoned by her father. The young girl then begins to understand the reasons he left and soon realises that she will probably have to leave Calabria soon too.
Director: Jonas Carpignano