Image via Complex Original
While bottom lines will always dominate the conversation in filmmaking circles, the current buzzword in Hollywood is “diversity.” Or, more specifically, “lack of diversity.” At the same time the hashtag-turned-movement #OscarsSoWhite is drawing attention to the fact that, for the second year in a row, not one black actor was recognized for his or her onscreen work in 2015, Idris Elba is making SAG Awards history. Not only did his historic double-win—for Best Supporting Actor in Beasts of No Nation and Best Actor in a Limited Series for Luther—make him the first male to take home two SAG Awards in one night, but the first black actor to do so.
On Jan. 22, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, via president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, announced a plan that they say will double “the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.” One week later, Nate Parker won both of the Sundance Film Festival’s top awards for his critically acclaimed Nat Turner biopic, The Birth of a Nation. Parker is just one of many filmmakers of color who will be changing the diversity conversation this year. Here’s a look at 15 Directors You Should Know Releasing Films in 2016.
1. Nate Parker, The Birth of a Nation
Among his many other talents, Nate Parker—star of 2014’s surprise hit Beyond the Lights—has got impeccable timing. Just days after the Academy promised to help rewrite the rules of Hollywood, the actor-turned-writer-director-producer was all anyone could talk about at Sundance because of The Birth of a Nation, his biopic on Nat Turner, the former slave who led one of the country’s biggest slave rebellions in 1831. Ultimately, Parker sold the rights to the film to Fox Searchlight for a record-breaking $17.5 million, then took home the festival’s Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s already a bit of Oscar chatter surrounding the film, which is scheduled to open later this year.
2. Bill Duke, Nat Turner: Story of a Prophet
Nate Parker isn’t the only filmmaker turning the spotlight on Nat Turner. Actor-turned-director Bill Duke is prepping yet another historical drama, Nat Turner: Story of a Prophet, for release in the fall. The project has been an ongoing one for Duke, who directed A Rage in Harlem, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, and Hoodlum. While the film is still in development, the buzz surrounding Parker’s work could actually help to fast-track Duke’s project.
3. Antoine Fuqua, The Magnificent Seven
If ever there were a filmmaker who could be entrusted with an update of The Magnificent Seven, Antoine Fuqua would be it. The celebrated director behind Training Day, Brooklyn’s Finest, The Equalizer, and Southpaw has a knack for creating the perfect balance of action and storytelling in his films, and eliciting career-making performances from his actors. His partnership with Denzel Washington, who will be starring in the film, is one of Hollywood’s more exciting actor-director collaborations. The film––which opens in September––will also see Fuqua and Washington re-team with Ethan Hawke, while Chris Pratt, Matt Bomer, Peter Sarsgaard, and Vincent D’Onofrio will be along for the ride, as well.
4. Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Writer-director Barry Jenkins’ feature debut, 2008’s Medicine for Melancholy, was a powerful look at a day in the life of two twentysomethings in the aftermath of a one-night stand. For his sophomore effort, Moonlight, Jenkins has teamed up with Brad Pitt’s Plan B and hot indie distributor A24 (who released Ex Machina, Room, and Amy last year and just acquired Swiss Army Man, a.k.a. Daniel Radcliffe’s farting corpse movie, at Sundance) to produce this coming-of-age story set in 1980s Miami.
5. Amma Asante, A United Kingdom
London-born filmmaker Amma Asante got her start in front of the camera on shows like Grange Hill and The Bill. But she’s shown even greater talent since making her move into the director’s chair, first with 2004’s A Way of Life, followed by 2014’s Belle, about a mixed race young woman being raised amidst 18th-century aristocracy. Her next feature, A United Kingdom, chronicles the life of Prince Seretse Khama, Botswana’s first president, who married a white woman in the 1940s.
6. Reginald Hudlin, Marshall
As he tends to work more in the television arena or behind the scenes as a producer these days, any time Reginald Hudlin—who directed House Party and Boomerang—announces a new film, it’s newsworthy. For his latest project—his first feature since 2002’s Serving Sara—he’s veering off into more dramatic territory with Marshall, focused on the early life of future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, played by Chadwick Boseman, who is clearly comfortable in the biopic realm, having starred as Jackie Robinson in 2013’s 42 and James Brown in 2014’s Get on Up.
7. Ernest Dickerson, Double Play
Like Reginald Hudlin, cinematographer-turned-director Ernest Dickerson (who spent years lensing Spike Lee’s films, from She’s Gotta Have It to Malcolm X) isn’t a one-movie-per-year kind of director. Since making his directorial debut with 1992’s Juice, Dickerson has accumulated more television than film work on his resume. But this year should see the release of Double Play, an adaption of author Frank Martinus Arion’s novel about Curaçao’s rocky transition to self-governance in the 1970s. It will star Lennie James, The Walking Dead’s Morgan Jones, and is currently filming.
8. Don Cheadle, Miles Ahead
Don Cheadle, who earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Hotel Rwanda in 2005, has worked with enough of Hollywood’s most talented filmmakers to pick up a directorial trick or two. Though he’s directed a couple episodes of his Showtime series House of Lies, he’s diving headfirst into features as the director, co-writer, and titular star of Miles Ahead, about the life of Miles Davis. Already, Cheadle has proven that there’s audience interest in the film; his Indiegogo campaign ended up exceeding its funding goal. “I’ve taken my marching orders from Miles’ mandates,” he writes on the campaign page. “I'm hopefully making a movie that tells a story many people can relate to, jazz fan or not.” The film will be released on April 1.
9. Julie Dash, Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl
From her adaptation of Alice Walker’s Diary of an African Nun in 1977 to 2002’s The Rosa Parks Story, Julie Dash has earned a reputation over the past 40-plus years as a filmmaker who aims to educate and entertain. She will continue that trend with Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl, about Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, who Dash—in her Indiegogo campaign to help fund the film—described as “a writer, actor, storyteller, broadcaster, grandmother, griot, culinary anthropologist, and key figure in five watershed cultural movements that helped define American history: Beat Literary Movement, Black Power Movement, Black Arts Movement, New Black Cinema, and Food as Cultural Memory.” The film will be released on Dec. 4.
10. Andrew Dosunmu, Beat-up Little Seagull
Before he was directing movies like 2011’s Restless City or 2013’s Mother of George, Andrew Dosunmu made his mark as a photographer and then as a music video director for the likes of Common, Wyclef Jean, Kelis, Maxwell, and Talib Kweli. Next up for the Nigerian-born artist is Beat-up Little Seagull, an indie drama starring Michelle Pfeiffer as a woman struggling to keep up in the world, particularly following the death of her mother. Kiefer Sutherland co-stars.
11. Tyler Perry, Boo! A Madea Halloween
As one of Hollywood’s most prolific filmmakers, Tyler Perry has always got a new film in the works. But between television series like The Haves and Have Nots and If Loving You is Wrong, plus straight acting gigs like Gerard Barrett’s Brain on Fire, he has somehow found the time to don those grandma glasses and floral house dresses once again to write, direct, produce, and star in Boo! A Madea Halloween, which is set to premiere on Oct. 21.
12. Spike Lee, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall
Spike Lee’s always got something in the works. After last year’s feature Chi-Raq, this year sees a new documentary from the Oscar-nominated filmmaker: Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall. The film, which features interviews with a number of A-list names who knew the King of Pop, traces the makings of Jackson’s legendary Off the Wall album. After making a successful debut at the Sundance Film Festival, the film will premiere on Showtime this month.
13. Malcolm D. Lee, Barbershop: The Next Cut
Fans of Ice Cube’s Barbershop film series will be pleased to know that Spike’s cousin, Malcolm D. Lee—creator of The Best Man franchise—is at the helm of its fourth installment, Barbershop: The Next Cut. The film returns to Calvin’s Barbershop on the South Side of Chicago, where it’s been more than a decade since the franchise’s last installment. Which means that a lot has changed, particularly in terms of the male to female ratio. Ice Cube and Anthony Anderson are among the familiar faces returning for the film, which will be released on April 15.
14. Albert Hughes, The Solutrean
As a director, Albert Hughes has kept relatively quiet since he and his brother Allen (a.k.a. The Hughes Brothers) parted creative ways after 2010’s The Book of Eli. But now he’s readying to launch his first solo directorial feature, The Solutrean, a survival story set during the Ice Age starring Kodi Smit-McPhee.
15. Billie Woodruff, The Perfect Match
Billie Woodruff began his entertainment career as an intern at BET, but rose through the ranks, eventually becoming an executive producer for the channel. He parlayed that hands-on production experience into a career behind the camera, directing a number of music videos and making his feature debut with 2003’s Honey (he’s also responsible for its sequel, and this year’s upcoming third installment). He’s also got The Perfect Match, a romantic comedy starring Terrence Jenkins as a playboy who discovers there might be something to this whole monogamy thing. The film is scheduled for a March 16 release.