50 Plus Fall/ Winter Films Produced, Directed By Or Featuring Black Talent In Prominent Roles
When the pandemic hit back in March and theaters nationwide and internationally started to shut down, streaming platforms and VOD became the home for a boatload of films, namely independent films. Most of the big budgeted studio films have been shifted to 2021 in the hopes that a vaccine would come in time for theaters to be open at 50% capacity. It’s October now and while some theaters are open, with the exception of New York City and California, not enough folks are flocking to see films at a big screen with cushy seats and popcorn. With Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Apple TV+, Disney+, Peacock and HBO Max to name a few, a great deal of films have found homes for filmmakers and talent to be discovered and and some careers reignited.
With the deadline for films to be Oscar contenders moving from Dec. 31 to Feb. 28, and with films debuting on streaming platforms or VOD included in these rules, a lot of films have better chances than ever befofe.
Here’s a list of at least 50 films, from October to February 2021, that have already premiered or will be coming out in various platforms that are produced, directed by or featuring Black talent in prominent roles. Some are Oscar caliber and some are not. Some are from studios and some are from festivals that are in the hopes to be picked up and release within this time frame.
The Devil To Pay
Release Date: October 2, 2020
Distributor: Uncork’d Entertainment and Dark Star Pictures
Director: Ruckus Skye and Lane Skye
Starring: Danielle Deadwyler, Catherine Dyer, Jayson Warner Smith, Brad Carter, Luce Rains, Adam Boyer, Charles Black, Parisa Johnston, Tim Habeger, and Ezra Haslam
After the disappearance of her husband, Lemon, a struggling farmer in an isolated Appalachian community, must repay her husband’s debt to the oldest family on the mountain and their murderous biscuit-making matriarch in order to save her young son’s life. Armed with only her wits and tenacity, Lemon must unravel the mysteries her husband left behind or lose everything she’s ever loved.
Black Box
Release Date: October 6, 2020
Studio: Amazon Prime
Director: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr.
Screenwriters: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. and Stephen Herman
Starring: Mamoudou Athie, Phylicia Rashad, Amanda Christine, Tosin Morohunfola, Charmaine Bingwa
After losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, a single father undergoes an agonizing experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is
The War With Grandpa
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Studio: 101 Studios Brookdale Studios
Producer: Marvin Peart, Rosa Peart
Director: Tim Hill
Starring: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Uma Thurman, Laura Marano, Oakes Fegley, Rob Riggle, Cheech Marin and Jane Seymour.
Sixth-grader Peter (Oakes Fegley) is pretty much your average kid-he likes gaming, hanging with his friends and his beloved pair of Air Jordans. But when his recently widowed grandfather Ed (Robert De Niro) moves in with Peter's family, the boy is forced to give up his most prized possession of all, his bedroom. Unwilling to let such an injustice stand, Peter devises a series of increasingly elaborate pranks to drive out the interloper, but Grandpa Ed won't go without a fight. Soon, the friendly combatants are engaged in an all-out war with side-splitting consequences.
Charm City Kings
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Distributor: HBO Max
Producer: Caleeb Pinkett, Clarence Hammond and Marc Bienstock
Director: Angel Manuel Soto
Screenwriters: Sherman Payne, with a story by Chris Boyd & Kirk Sullivan and Barry Jenkins
Starring: Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Meek Mill, Will Catlett, Donielle Hansley, Kezii Curtis, Chino, Lakeyria “Wheelie Queen” Doughty and Teyonah Parris.
Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and James Lassiter executive produced through their company Overbrook Entertainment.
In the film, Mouse (Di’Allo Winston) desperately wants to join The Midnight Clique, an infamous group of Baltimore dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax (Meek Mill), takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence.
The 40 Year-Old Version
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Studio: Netflix
Producers: Lena Waithe, Jordan Fudge, Radha Blank, Inuka Bacote-Capiga, Jennifer Semler, and Rishi Rajani
Director: Radha Blank
Screenwriters: Radha Blank
Starring: Radha Blank, Peter Kim, Oswin Benjamin, Imani Lewis, Haskiri Velazquez, Antonio Ortiz, TJ Atoms, Reed Birney, and Jacob Ming-Trent
Radha, a down-on-her-luck NY playwright, is desperate for a breakthrough before 40. But when she foils what seems like her last shot at success, she’s left with no choice but to reinvent herself as rapper RadhaMUSPrime. The Forty-Year-Old Version follows Radha as she vacillates between the worlds of Hip Hop and theater on a quest to find her true voice.
Black Boys
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Studio: NBC’s Peacock
Executive Producer: Malcolm Jenkins
Director: Sonia Lowman
Screenwriters: Sonia Lowman
BLACK BOYS is a documentary film that celebrates the full humanity of Black men and boys in America. Utilizing conversations and stories around education, criminal justice and sports, the film reveals the emotional landscape of those experiencing racism and invites us to reimagine an America in which Black boys experience true belonging and unlimited possibilities.
BLACK BOYS features interviews with activist and rapper Vic Mensa, NBA All-Star Carmelo Anthony, two-time Super Bowl champion Greg Scruggs, NFL Hall of Fame inductee Cris Carter, Super Bowl champion Chris Long, award-winning sports journalist Jemele Hill, poet/activist Malcolm London, and former U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. John King Jr.
Freedia Got a Gun
Release Date: October 15, 2020
Studio: Peacock & World of Wonder
Producers: Fenton Bailer & Randy Barbato (World of Wonder), Chris McKim
Director: Chris McKim
Starring: Big Freedia
FREEDIA GOT A GUN dives into this country’s centuries-long struggle with gun violence and its ties back to race and toxic masculinity. Devastated after learning her brother Adam was murdered, New Orleans bounce legend Big Freedia uses her platform to raise awareness about the complexities of gun violence. As Freedia shares her personal journey from growing up gay in the projects through Hurricane Katrina and chasing her musical dreams, she delves deep into the first-hand experiences she and the community have had with gun violence, seeking to uncover the causes behind it.
The Trial Of The Chicago 7
Release Date: October 16, 2020
Studio: Netflix
Producer: Matt Platt, Stuart Besser and Tyler Thompson
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Screenwriters: Aaron Sorkin
Starring: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Flaherty, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Noah Robbins, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, and Jeremy Strong.
Based on a true story, The Trial of the Chicago 7 follows protesters who disrupted the 1968 Democrat party convention with an anti-Vietnam war “carnival” that turned nasty. Demonstrators threw bricks, police responded with tear gas and the center of Chicago was engulfed in flames. Curfews only escalated the violence.
After the clashes, independent investigators blamed eight police officers and eight protesters including Hoffman, who had already disrupted the New York Stock Exchange with showers of fake money. The police were not charged but the protesters were accused of inciting a riot. One was jailed for contempt, leaving the seven to fight the charges.
Don’t Look Back
Release Date: October 16, 2020
Studio: Gravitas Ventures
Director: Jeffrey Reddick
Screenwriters: Jeffrey Reddick
Starring: Kourtney Bell, Bryan Batt, Will Stout, Skyler Hart, Jeremy Holm, Jaqueline Fleming, Amanda Grace Benitez, Damon Lipari
The film follows Caitlin Kramer (Kourtney Bell), a woman overcoming a tragic past, who is among several people who see a man being fatally assaulted. When the witnesses start dying mysteriously, she must unearth if they’re being targeted by a killer or something far more insidious.
Time
Release Date: October 9, 2020 in theaters, Oct. 16 on Prime Video
Studio: Amazon Studios
Producer: Laurene Domino, Kellen Quinn, Garrett Bradley
Director: Garrett Bradley
Fox Rich is a fighter. The entrepreneur, abolitionist and mother of six boys has spent the last two decades campaigning for the release of her husband, Rob G. Rich, who is serving a 60-year sentence for a robbery they both committed in the early 90s in a moment of desperation. Combining the video diaries Fox has recorded for Rob over the years with intimate glimpses of her present-day life, director Garrett Bradley paints a mesmerizing portrait of the resilience and radical love necessary to prevail over the endless separations of the country’s prison-industrial complex.
Trigger
Release Date: October 22, 2020
Studio: BET+
Producer: Footage Films
Director: Chris Stokes
Screenwriters: David Drinkwater, Marques Houston, Chris Stokes and Juanita Stokes
Starring: Wesley Jonathan, Flex Alexander, Jeremy Meeks, Jordyn Woods, Erica Peeples, Ashley Martelle, Obba Babatunde, and Chris Jones
The original film tells the story of Trey Mass, who is finally home from prison after a ten-year sentence. With nowhere else to go he visits his brother Collin. Collin’s wife, Vanessa, is not too excited about the idea of Collin’s criminal brother showing up unannounced but agrees to allow Trey to stay with them for one night. That one night turns into complete mayhem, when Trey, in an act to protect his brother Collin, accidentally kills Harry, a friend of Collin’s who’s there for game night. When a fun night quickly escalates into a hostage situation, Collin and Trey’s older brother Mike Mass is sent in to negotiate the situation.
The Witches
Release Date: October 22, 2020
Studio: HBO Max
Producer: Robert Zemeckis, Jack Rapke, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, Luke Kelly
Director: Robert Zemekis and Kenya Barris
Screenwriters: Robert Zemekis, Guillermo del Toro and Kenya Barris
Starring: Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Jahzir Bruno, Codie-Lei Eastick, Stanley Tucci, Chris Rock, Charles Edwards, Morgana Robinson, Eugenia Caruso, Simon Manyonda
Reimagining Roald Dahl's beloved story for a modern audience, Robert Zemeckis' visually innovative film tells the darkly humorous and heartwarming tale of a young orphaned boy (Jahzir Bruno) who, in late 1967, goes to live with his loving Grandma in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis. As the boy and his grandmother encounter some deceptively glamorous but thoroughly diabolical witches, she wisely whisks our young hero away to an opulent seaside resort. Regrettably, they arrive at precisely the same time that the world's Grand High Witch (Anne Hathaway) has gathered her fellow cronies from around the globe—undercover—to carry out her nefarious plans.
Bad Hair
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Studio: Hulu
Producer: Julia Lebedev, Angel Lopez, Eddie Vaisman, Justin Simien
Director: Justin Simien
Screenwriters: Justin Simien
Starring: Elle Lorraine, Jay Pharoah, Lena Waithe, Kelly Rowland, Laverne Cox, Chante Adams, Ashley Blaine Featherson, James Van Der Beek, Michelle Hurd, Yaani King Mondschein, Daheli Hall, Usher Raymond IV, Blair Underwood, Vanessa Williams, Robin Thede, Nicole Byer, Steve Zissis
In this horror satire set in 1989, Bad Hair follows an ambitious young woman named Anna (Elle Lorraine) who gets a weave in order to succeed in the image-obsessed world of music television. However, her flourishing career comes at a great cost when she realizes that her new hair may have a mind of its own.
Business Ethics
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Studio: Innis Lake Entertainment Media/ Fisher Park
Executive Producers: Larenz & Larron Tate
Director: Nick Wernham
Screenwriters: Richard Wernham
Starring: Larenz Tate, Sarah Carter, Julian De Zotti, Gil Bellows, Angus Macfadyen
The film stars Larenz Tate, best known for his roles in the hit STARZ series Power, and films such as: Menace II Society, Dead Presidents and Love Jones.
Business Ethics follows the story of Zachery Cranston (Larenz Tate), an ambitious and unethical financial tycoon who will stop at nothing to climb the ladder of success. Fresh out of business school, Cranston seems to have all necessities to succeed in the finance world. But Cranston’s ambition, to a fault, finds him lured in by a dramatic new idea for a fund that may not be so legal.
Synchronic
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Studio: Well Go USA
Producer: Michael Mendelsohn, David Lawson Jr, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Director: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
Screenwriters: Justin Benson
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Jamie Dornan, Katie Aselton, Ally Ioannides, Ramiz Monsef, Bill Oberst Jr., Betsy Holt, Shane Brady, Matthew Underwood, Carl Palmerd Kingsley Ben-Adir
When New Orleans paramedics and longtime best friends Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) are called to a series of bizarre, gruesome accidents, they chalk it up to the mysterious new party drug found at the scene. But after Dennis’s oldest daughter suddenly disappears, Steve stumbles upon a terrifying truth about the supposed psychedelic that will challenge everything he knows about reality—and the flow of time itself.
On The Rocks
Release Date: October 23, 2020
Studio: A24 & Apple TV+
Director: Sofia Coppola
Screenwriters: Sofia Coppola
Starring: Bill Murray, Rashida Jones, Marlon Wayans, Jessica Henwick, Jenny Slate, Barbara Bain, Nadia Dajani, Musto Pelinkovicci, Jules Wilcox, Alexandra Mary Reimer, Anna Chanel Reimer
A young New York mother faced with sudden doubts about her marriage teams up with her larger-than-life playboy father to tail her husband. What follows is a sparkling comic adventure across the city—drawing father and daughter closer together despite one detour after another.
Laura (Rashida Jones) thinks she’s happily hitched, but when her husband Dean (Marlon Wayans) starts logging late hours at the office with a new co-worker, Laura begins to fear the worst. She turns to the one man she suspects may have insight: her charming, impulsive father Felix (Bill Murray), who insists they investigate the situation. As the two begin prowling New York at night, careening from uptown parties to downtown hotspots, they discover at the heart of their journey lies their own relationship.
Black In Minneapolis
Release Date: October 27, 2020 on VOD
Studio: Monument Releasing
Producer: Alison Guessou and Senay Matewos
Director: David J. Buchanan
Screenwriters: David J. Buchanan
Starring: Toussaint Morrison, Geoff Briley, and Malick Ceesay
Filmed in Minneapolis before George Floyd's murder, David J. Buchanan's Black in Minneapolis film is an urgent, modern-day Malcolm X story, told through the eyes of a Black man who witnesses his brother's murder by police during a routine traffic stop. He responds to the murder by generating a movement of Black people to fight against systemic oppression and police violence by utilizing community organizing, political policy, and force.
““Am I going to live?” is a thought that every Black person in America, including myself, has had when they are pulled over by the police. I had been thinking about the ideas in Black In Minneapolis for years, and when I saw the Facebook Live video of Philando Castile as he was murdered by Minneapolis police, I put pen to paper and wrote the script.” - David J. Buchanan
Spell
Release Date: October 30, 2020
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Producers: Morris Chestnut, Gordon Gray, Janine van Assen, Brian Wilkins, and Kurt Wimmer
Director: Mark Tonderai
Screenwriters: Kurt Wimmer
Starring: Omari Hardwick, Loretta Devine, John Beasley, and Lorraine Burroughs
While flying to his father’s funeral in rural Appalachia, an intense storm causes Marquis (Omari Hardwick) to lose control of the plane carrying him and his family. He awakens wounded, alone and trapped in Ms. Eloise’s (Loretta Devine) attic, who claims she can nurse him back to health with the Boogity, a Hoodoo figure she has made from his blood and skin. Unable to call for help, Marquis desperately tries to outwit and break free from her dark magic and save his family from a sinister ritual before the rise of the blood moon.
His House
Release Date: October 30, 2020
Studio: Netflix
Producer: Edward King, Martin Gentles, Roy Lee, Aidan Elliott, Arnon Milchan
Director: Remi Weeks
Screenwriters: Felicity Evans and Toby Venables
Starring: Sope Dirisu, Wunmi Mosaku, Matt Smith
After making a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, a young refugee couple struggle to adjust to their new life in a small English town that has an unspeakable evil lurking beneath the surface
The True Adventures Of Wolfboy
Release Date: October 30, 2020
Studio: Vertical Entertainment
Producer: Kimberly Steward, Josh Godfrey, Lauren Beck, Declan Baldwin, Benjamin Blake
Director: Martin Krejcí
Screenwriters: Olivia Dufault
Starring: Jaeden Martell, Chris Messina, Eve Hewson, Michelle Wilson, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sophie Giannamore, Chloë Sevigny, John Turturro
Paul lives an isolated life with his father in upstate New York. He finds making friends impossible due to a rare condition he has known as congenital hypertrichosis - an affliction that causes an abnormal amount of hair growth all over his face and body. On his 13th birthday, Paul receives a mysterious gift that compels him to run away and seek out the mother he has never known.
Kindred
Release Date: November 6, 2020
Studio: IFC Midnight
Director: Joe Marcantonio
Screenwriters: Joe Marcantonio and Jason McColgan
Starring: Tamara Lawrance, Jack Lowden, Fiona Shaw, and Edward Holcroft
Kindred follows mother-to-be Charlotte. She collapses upon receiving the news that her boyfriend Ben suddenly dies in an accident. She wakes up in Ben’s family home, a crumbling old manor house in the middle of nowhere with Ben’s overbearing mother, Margaret, and his controlling stepbrother, Thomas. They are determined to care for her, at least until the baby arrives. Grief stricken and increasingly haunted by visions possibly brought on by the pregnancy, Charlotte accepts their help. But as the days go by she begins to doubt their intentions and her suspicions grow. Are they drugging her and keeping her captive, with the aim of taking her unborn baby? As her visions intensify and the haze of lies grows, Charlotte decides that her only option is to break free from this family once and for all.
True To The Game 2
Release Date: November 6, 2020
Studio: Imani Media Group
Producer: Manny Halley, Rodney Turner II and Yolanda Halley
Director: Jamal Hill
Screenwriters: Preston A. Whitmore II
Starring: Vivica A. Fox, Andra Fuller, Erica Peeples, Iyana Halley, and Jamaar Simon. New additions are Rotimi, Jeremy Meeks, Niatia ‘Lil Mama’ Kirkland, Faith Evans, Starletta DuPois, Tamar Braxton, Lisa Renee Pitts, Christian James, Kevin Sizemore, Bernice Burgos, Juliet “Juju” Cee, London on Da Track, Paul Saucido and Waka Flocka Flame
TRUE TO THE GAME II, picks up a year after the first installment of True to the Game, following the lives of the characters affected by Quadir’s (Columbus Short) murder. Separating herself from Philly’s dangerous scene, Gena (Erica Peeples) has reinvented herself as a journalist, living and working in NYC. Quickly growing in her company Gena is sent on assignment to LA for a career changing story. Though Gena is far from home, her life in Philly seems to always make an appearance. Someone from Quadir’s circle has avenged his death with a hit on Jerrell’s crew members, reigniting another war between the two crews. Jerrell (Andra Fuller) is determined to get paid by any means necessary and he’ll start with Gena.
All Joking Aside
Release Date: November 13, 2020
Studio: Quiver Distribution
Producer: Jon Ornoy
Director: Shannon Kohli
Screenwriters: James Pickering
Starring: Raylene Harewood, Brian Markinson, Tanya Jade and Richard Lett
CHARLENE MURRAY (Charlie to her friends) isn’t your average twenty-one year old. Inspired by her late father’s unrealized ambitions, she wants nothing more in life than to be a stand-up comic, and is equal parts thrilled and terrified by the fact that she’s finally old enough to get into a comedy club and actually try her material in front of paying customers. So with a fistful of jokes, and her stalwart friend KIM there to get her back, she heads to the LAUGHING HYENA, one of New York’s faded comedic hot spots, to hit her first ever open mic night.
Glued to his barstool at the back of the room, with his fourth whiskey of the night in hand is BOB CARPENTER, and he’s not going to stop heckling until Charlie gives up the microphone. It doesn’t take long before he gets exactly what he wants, and Charlie, chastened, flees the club with Kim on her tail. When she later returns to the Hyena to talk to the manager DENNIS, he tells Charlie that if she really wants to learn the craft, then she’s got to be writing all the time, and studying people who know what they’re doing; people like Bob who, before his marriage and career collapsed and he became an alcoholic heckler, used to be one of the top touring comics in the country. He pulls out some old VHS tapes of the young and energetic performer, first showing him own the crowd with his raw, edgy material, and then in a different clip from his final performance a few years later, literally attacking them. Impressed by this new side of him, and with Dennis’ encouragement, Charlie decides that Bob is going to be her mentor whether he likes it or not, and sets about winning him over. As the two slowly feel each other out, what develops is an unlikely friendship based on broken families, a healthy appreciation of sarcasm, and the undeniable rush of making a whole room full of people laugh.
Blindfire
Release Date: November 13, 2020
Studio: Kandoo Films
Producer: Howard Barish
Director: Michael Nell
Screenwriters: Michael Nell
Starring: Brian Geraghty, Sharon Leal, Bethany Joy Lenz, Edwina Findley Dickerson, Jim Beaver and Chiké Okonkwo along with Wayne Brady
Inspired by actual events, BLINDFIRE follows Will Bishop (Geraghty), a white cop who responds to a violent hostage call and unjustifiably kills the Black man (Okonkwo) in his own home. After Bishop learns of the victim’s innocence and is suddenly facing repercussions for his actions, he is forced to confront extremely difficult conversations with his partner (Leal), as well as the family of the victim, and must examine his own accountability while attempting to find the person who he feels is actually responsible for the tragic chain of events. Produced by Howard Barish (13th, Skin In The Game), the compelling drama echoes much of the conversation taking place in society today and offers a unique exploration of this timely issue from both sides.
Come Away
Release Date: November 13, 2020
Studio: Relativity Media
Producer: Leesa Kahn, Andrea Keir, David Oyelowo and James Spring
Director: Brenda Chapman
Screenwriters: Marissa Kate Goodhill
Starring: Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, Anna Chancellor, Clarke Peters, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Caine, David Gyasi, and Reece Yates
In this imaginative origin story of two of the most beloved characters in literature – Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland – eight-year-old Alice, her mischievous brother Peter and their brilliant older sibling David let their imaginations run wild one blissful summer in the English countryside. Encouraged by their parents Jack and Rose, the kids’ make-believe tea parties, sword fights and pirate ship adventures come to an abrupt end when tragedy strikes. Peter, eager to prove himself a hero to his grief-stricken and financially-struggling parents, journeys with Alice to London, where they try to sell a treasured heirloom to the sinister pawnshop owner known as C.J. Returning home, Alice seeks temporary refuge in a wondrous rabbit hole while Peter permanently escapes reality by entering a magical realm as leader of the “Lost Boys.”
The Comeback Trail
Release Date: November 13, 2020
Studio: Cloudburst Entertainment
Producer: Patrick Hibler, Phil Kim, David E. Ornston, Richard Salvatore
Director: George Gallo
Screenwriters: George Gallo, Josh Posner
Starring: Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones, Emile Hirsch, Zach Braff, Eddie Griffin & Kate Katzman
Two movie producers who owe money to the mob set up their aging movie star for an insurance scam to try and save themselves. But they wind up getting more than they ever imagined.
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey
Release Date: November 13, 2020
Studio: Netflix
Producer: Get Lifted’s Mike Jackson and John Legend, 260 Degrees Entertainment’s David E. Talbert, Lyn Sisson-Talbert, Burr! Productions’ Kristin Burr and Brillstein Entertainment Partners’ David McIlvain
Director: David E. Talbert
Screenwriters: David E. Talbert
Starring: Forest Whitaker, Madalen Mills, Keegan-Michael Key, Sharon Rose, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Kieron Dyer, Justin Cornwell, Lisa Davina Phillip, and Hugh Bonneville
A musical adventure and a visual spectacle for the ages, Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey is a wholly fresh and spirited family holiday event. Set in the gloriously vibrant town of Cobbleton, the film follows legendary toymaker Jeronicus Jangle (Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker) whose fanciful inventions burst with whimsy and wonder. But when his trusted apprentice (Emmy winner Keegan-Michael Key) steals his most prized creation, it’s up to his equally bright and inventive granddaughter (newcomer Madalen Mills) — and a long-forgotten invention — to heal old wounds and reawaken the magic within.
The Life Ahead
Release Date: November 13, 2020
Studio: Netflix
Director: Edoardo Ponti
Screenwriters: Ugo Chiti.
Starring: Sophia Loren and newcomer Ibrahima Gueye
In seaside Italy, a Holocaust survivor with a daycare business, Madame Rosa (Loren), takes in 12-year-old street kid Momo, the boy who recently robbed her. The two loners become each other’s protectors, anchoring an unconventional family.
Always And Forever
Release Date: November 20, 2020
Studio: RLJE Films
Producer: Patrick Johnson Jr., Marques Houston, Jerome Jones, Jarrell Houston, Shondrella Avery, and Alana Brown
Director: Chris Stokes
Starring: Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Robbie Jones, Lauren London, Loretta Devine, Wood Harris, Rocsi Diaz, Deborah Ayorinde and Vanessa Curry
The plot follows Nicole (Addai-Robinson), a successful criminal prosecutor who seems to have it all – a great job, an adoring husband (Jones) – but her perfect world is shattered when her childhood friend is suddenly found dead. The tragedy reunites Nicole with her best friends from years ago, but they each soon find themselves in danger, targets of a deranged stalker. As the secrets of their past come back to haunt them, they’ll soon realize that a deadly nightmare is just beginning for those who long ago pledged their loyalty to each other, “always and forever.”
Coming To Africa
Release Date: Novermber 27, 2020
Studio: BKE Films
Director: Anwar Jamison
Screenwriters: Anwar Jamison
Starring: Anwar Jamison, Khalil Kain, Powwah Uhuru, Nana Ama McBrown
Adrian (Anwar Jamison) has spent his entire adult life, climbing the Corporate America ladder and playing the necessary games to get ahead. He’s bought into the “American Dream” – hook, line and sinker -- and he’s been extremely successful in the corporate world because of it. But, he’s not the most conscious brotha! As a Black man, he’s intentionally shied away from any talk of social justice and racial inequality or leveraged his position to help the Black community. Instead, he believes that the richer Black people become, the better off they’ll be in the struggle. That’s all that matters to him in his rise to the top. He’s poised for a HUGE promotion on his job, making him the first African-American vice president in the history of his company. But, racism rears its ugly head, and he gets a reality check!
On the flip side, Adrian’s brother, Buck (Khalil Kain), is a barber and social activist, who routinely holds community meetings in his barber shop. He’s fully engaged in social change and the liberation of Black people in America — that is, when he’s not cutting hair. So too is Adrian’s other brother, Adonis (Powwah Uhuru), who’s been saving up for more than a year to celebrate his 10th wedding anniversary and gift his wife with the ultimate wedding gift – that is, a trip to Africa. After a perfect storm of disappointment and discrimination, Adrian finds himself in Ghana on an amusing adventure where he meets the beautiful Akosua (Nana Ama McBrown) and finds the nourishment he truly needs for his soul.
Princess Of The Row
Release Date: November 27, 2020
Studio: Gravitas ventures
Producer: A. Shawn Austin and Edi Gathegi
Executive Producers: Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary
Director: Van Maximilian Carlson
Screenwriters: A. Shawn Austin and Van Maximilian Carlson
Starring: Edi Gathegi, Martin Sheen, Tayler Buck, Ana Ortiz and Jacob Vargas
Bouncing around the sometimes-abusive foster care system, Alicia Willis, a creative 12-year-old girl, ditches school to visit her military veteran father Sgt. Beaumont “Bo” Willis. After a battle-induced brain injury during his service in Iraq, Bo is now homeless and living on LA’s skid row while suffering from severe PTSD. The injury renders him unable to recognize his own daughter most of the time but to Alicia it doesn’t matter, because she remembers him as the father he used to be: a caring man with a love of storytelling. After discovering her next foster home is ten hours away, Alicia sets out on a mission to save her family. With social services in hot pursuit, she and her father flee the city in search of a better life where they can be together in peace.
Dutch
Release Date: November 27, 2020
Studio: Imani Media Group
Producer: Manny Halley, Rodney Turner II and Yolanda Halley
Director: Preston A. Whitmore II
Screenwriters: Preston A. Whitmore II
Starring: Lance Gross, James Hyde, Isabella Ferreira, Melissa Williams, Jeremy Meeks, Markice Moore, Miles Stroter, Robert Costanzo and Natasha Marc with appearances by Michael Blackson, O.T. Genasis and Renny
DUTCH introduces us to Bernard James, Jr. aka “Dutch” (Gross), a player who will use any means necessary to dominate the streets and beyond. For Dutch, survival is the ultimate score and power is the deadliest high of all. When he gains control of an African drug lord’s stolen heroin business, Dutch quickly makes it the most feared drug empire on the East Coast. Naturally, there are plenty of armed and dangerous enemies who would love to take him down, including a vengeful Mafia heir who is also an ambitious DA and former friend.
Dutch knows that as a drug kingpin, his life is on the line which makes him paranoid. He begins to see an enemy in everyone he meets — however he still has to play the game. With his killer looks and charm, Dutch can seduce any woman he wants, but there’s one woman who he can’t resist. She will shake his ice-cold control to its core, making him risk it all for a betrayal he never saw coming.
The Midnight Sky
Release Date: December 1, 2020
Studio: Netflix
Producer: Grant Heslov, George Clooney, Keith Redmon, Bard Dorros, Cliff Roberts
Director: George Clooney
Screenwriters: Mark L. Smith Based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton
Starring: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Tiffany Boone with Demián Bichir and Kyle Chandler, and introducing Caoilinn Springall
This post-apocalyptic tale follows Augustine (George Clooney), a lonely scientist in the Arctic, as he races to stop Sully (Felicity Jones) and her fellow astronauts from returning home to a mysterious global catastrophe.
Stand!
Release Date: December 1, 2020
Studio: Fathom Events
Producer: Danny Schur & Jeff Peeler
Director: Robert Adetuyi
Screenwriters: Danny Schur & Rick Chafe
Starring: Marshall Williams , Laura Slade Wiggins, Lisa Bell & Gregg Henry. Featuring Hayley Sales, Paul Essiembre, Tristan Carlucci, Gabriel Daniels, Ryan Ash, Blake Taylor, Robin Ruel & Boris Gulyarin.
1919. Stefan and his father Mike fled Ukraine for the New World, where they struggle to earn enough to reunite the family. Stefan is instantly smitten with the Jewish suffragette neighbour, Rebecca – but Rebecca’s brother Moishe and Mike oppose the would-be Romeo and Juliet. Returned soldiers, angry at the lack of jobs after the war, violently threaten the city’s immigrants, including Emma, the refugee from racist violence in Oklahoma. When a movement develops for workers to leave their jobs in protest, AJ Anderson, a wealthy lawyer, pits all against each other in a dramatic and inspirational final stand.
40 Years A Prisoner
Release Date: December 3, 2020
Studio: HBO
Executive Producers: Keith Gionet, Shelby Stone, Mike Jackson, John Legend, Derek Dudley, Common, Kelly Ryan, Adam Platzner, Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter, Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson
Director: Tommy Oliver
Starring: Mike Africa Jr.
On August 8, 1978, after a 15-month standoff, the confrontation between the Black liberation group MOVE and the Philadelphia Police Department exploded in gunshots. Police officer James J. Ramp lay dead. Nine MOVE members, including the couple Michael Davis Africa and Debbie Sims Africa, were charged and convicted of third-degree murder of officer Ramp and sentenced to 30-100 years in prison. A month later, in prison, Debbie gave birth to son Michael Davis Africa, Jr., who was then taken away from her.
The film follows Mike Africa Jr., who commits his life to fighting for the release of his parents who he has only known through prison walls. The documentary features eyewitness accounts and archival footage of the escalating tension that results in the controversial confrontation between police and MOVE members.
Billie
Release Date: December 4, 2020
Studio: Greenwich Entertainment
Director: James Erskine
BILLIE HOLIDAY, one of the greatest voices of all time, a woman of breath-taking talent and global popularity, was throughout her short life a figure of controversy – a black woman in a white man’s world, a victim and a rebel whose infamous Strange Fruit, the first protest song, earned her powerful enemies. She was also an enigma, her telling of her own life story a mix of half truths and free-form improvisations.
Then in the late 1960’s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie. Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with the extraordinary characters that populated the iconic singer’s short, tumultuous life. Raw, emotional and brutally honest, these incredible testimonies ranged from musical greats like Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie to her cousin, school friends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her. But Linda’s book was never finished and the tapes unplayed –until now.
I’m Your Woman
Release Date: Dec. 4, 2020 in select theaters, Dec. 11 on Prime Video
Studio: Amazon Studios
Producer: Jordon Horowitz, Rachel Brosnahan
Director: Julia Hart
Screenwriters: Julia Hart and Jordon Horowitz
Starring: Rachel Brosnahan, Arinzé Kene, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Bill Heck, Frankie Faison
Suburban housewife Jean (Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”) lives a seemingly easy life, supported by husband Eddie’s (Bill Heck) career as a thief. But when Eddie betrays his partners, Jean and her baby are forced to go on the run, and Eddie’s old friend Cal (Arinzé Kene) is tasked with the job of keeping them safe. After Cal mysteriously disappears, Jean befriends Teri (Marsha Stephanie Blake), and the two women set out on a perilous journey into the heart of Eddie’s criminal underworld.
Farewell Amor
Release Date: Dec. 11, 2020
Studio: IFC Films
Producer: Huriyyah Muhammad, Sam Bisbee, and Josh Penn
Director: Ekwa Msangi
Screenwriters: Ekwa Msangi
Starring: Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah, Jayme Lawson, Nana Mensah, Joie Lee, Marcus Scribner.
After 17 years apart, Angolan immigrant Walter is joined in the U.S. by his wife and teen daughter. Now absolute strangers sharing a one bedroom Brooklyn apartment, they struggle to overcome the emotional distance between them. Walter is trying to let go of a previous relationship while his wife Esther struggles with a new country, culture and a husband who seems distant. Their daughter Sylvia is a dancer just like her father, and while she also finds her new life difficult, she bravely starts to explore the city and show herself through dance. The film is both a universal immigrant story and the unique perspective of three characters bound together by history and hope. It is an intimate and deeply personal look at an inter-generational tale that has defined America since its inception.
The Available Wife
Release Date: Dec. 17, 2020
Studio: UMC
Producer: Tressa Azarel Smallwood and Audrea Topps Harjo
Director: Jamal Hill
Screenwriters: Tressa Azarel Smallwood, Jamal Hill and Kyjuan Cleveland.
Starring: KJ Smith, Terayle Hill, Clifton Powell and Roger Guenveur Smith
Based on the novel “The Available Wife“ written by author Carla Pennington, the film explores when a successful music CEO gets caught up in lies, affairs and power, she is forced to face the dark motives of her secret lover.
The drama follows Nicole Wright (Smith), a beautiful and successful music CEO whose life is about to crumble in front of her. While having an affair with the sexy artist on the rise who promises her everything (Terayle Hill), Nicole learns the hard way that looks can be deceiving and his motives are as dark as the secrets she keeps.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Release Date: December 18, 2020
Studio: Netflix
Producer: Denzel Washington
Director: George C. Wolfe
Screenwriters: Ruben Santiago-Hudson, based on August Wilson’s play
Starring: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, Taylour Paige, Jonny Coyne, Jeremy Shamos, and Dusan Brown
“Ma Rainey’s Block Bottom” stars Davis as Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, the iconic professional blues singer who became known as the “Mother of the Blues.” The film is set during an intense recording session in 1920s Chicago as Ma Rainey battles her manager and producer over control of her music and goes toe-to-toe with band members such as Boseman’s Levee, an ambitious trumpeter who is determined to make a name for himself in the music industry.
Coming 2 America
Release Date: December 18, 2020
Studio: Amazon Prime
Director: Craig Brewer
Screenwriters: Kenya Barris
Starring: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Paul Bates, and Shari Headley. In addition, Leslie Jones, Kiki Layne, Wesley Snipes, Jermaine Fowler, Rick Ross, singer Teyana Taylor, Michael Blackson, Louie Anderson
Coming 2 America will follow Akeem, now set to become king, discovering he has a son he never knew about, a street-savvy Queens native named Lavelle. Honoring his father’s dying wish to groom his son as a new crowned prince, Akeem must once again return to America.
One Night In Miami
Release Date: December 25, 2020
Studio: Amazon Studios
Producer: Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder, Jody Klein
Director: Regina King
Screenwriters: Kemp Powers
Starring: Kinglsey Ben-Adir, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., Eli Goree, Lance Reddick, Joaquina Kalukango, Michael Imperioli, Jerome A. Wilson, Nicolette Robinson, Beau Bridges, Aaron D. Alexander
Set on the night of February 25, 1964, the story follows a young Cassius Clay (before he became Muhammad Ali) (played by Eli Goree) as he emerges from the Miami Beach Convention Center the new World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. Against all odds, he defeated Sonny Liston and shocked the sports world. While crowds of people swarm Miami Beach to celebrate the match, Clay - unable to stay on the island because of Jim Crow-era segregation laws - instead spends the night at the Hampton House Motel in one of Miami's historically black neighborhoods celebrating with three of his closest friends: activist Malcolm X (played by Kingsley Ben-Adir), singer Sam Cooke (played by Leslie Odom Jr.) and football star Jim Brown (played by Aldis Hodge). The next morning, the four men emerge determined to define a new world for themselves and their people.
Soul
Release Date: December 25, 2020
Studio: Disney Plus
Producer: Dana Murray
Director: Pete Docter and Kemp Powers
Screenwriters: Pete Docter and Kemp Powers
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Phylicia Rashad, Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Angela Bassett and Daveed Diggs
What is it that makes you...YOU? Pixar Animation Studios’ “Soul” introduces Joe Gardner (voice of Jamie Foxx) – a middle-school band teacher who gets the chance of a lifetime to play at the best jazz club in town. But one small misstep takes him from the streets of New York City to The Great Before – a fantastical place where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth. Determined to return to his life, Joe teams up with a precocious soul, 22 (voice of Tina Fey), who has never understood the appeal of the human experience. As Joe desperately tries to show 22 what’s great about living, he may just discover the answers to some of life’s most important questions.
Sylvie’s Love
Release Date: December 25, 2020
Studio: Amazon Studios
Producer: Nnamdi Asomugha, Gabrielle Glore, Jonathan Baker, and Matthew Thurm
Director: Eugene Ashe
Screenwriters: Eugene Ashe
Starring: Tessa Thompson, Nnamdi Asomugha, Ryan Michelle Bathe, Regé-Jean Page, Eva Longoria, Aja Naomi King, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Jemima Kirke, Alano Miller, MC Lyte, Tone Bell, Erica Gimpel, John Magaro, and Lance Redick
Set in ’50s and ’60s New York City, the story follows aspiring television producer Sylvie (Thompson) as she meets aspiring saxophonist Robert (Asomugha) when he takes a job at her father’s record store in Harlem. After a summer romance that comes to an end, the two fatefully reconnect several years later and find that their feelings for each other have never disappeared.
If Not Now, When?
Release Date: January 8, 2021
Studio: Vertical Entertainment
Producer: Meagan Good, Tamara Bass, Datari Turner, Sway Calloway
Director: Meagan Good, Tamara Bass
Screenwriter: Tamara Bass
Starring: Meagan Good, Tamara Bass, Meagan Holder, Mekia Cox, Niles Fitch, Lexi Underwood, Edwin Hodge, and McKinley Freeman
If Not Now, When? introduces us to Suzanne, Patrice, Tyra and Deidre, who have been friends since meeting at 14. Over the course of their lives, fights, disagreements and love have caused friction and distance to manifest between some of them, particularly Suzanne and Patrice, who haven’t spoken in almost 15 years. When Tyra, who is mother to 14 year old Jillian, suffers a crisis, all four women are drawn back together to make it through, and soon discover that they also need each other, and that sisterhood, to make it through what is currently happening in their individual lives.
The 355
Release Date: January 15, 2021
Studio: Universal Pictures
Producer: Jessica Chastain, Kelly Carmichael and Simon Kinberg
Director: Simon Kinberg
Screenwriters: Theresa Rebeck and Simon Kinberg
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Bingbing Fan, Sebastian Stan, and Edgar Ramírez
In The 355, a dream team of formidable female stars come together in a hard-driving original approach to the globe-trotting espionage genre.
When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, wild card CIA agent Mason “Mace” Brown (Oscar®-nominated actress Jessica Chastain) will need to join forces with rival badass German agent Marie (Diane Kruger, In the Fade), former MI6 ally and cutting-edge computer specialist Khadijah (Oscar® winner Lupita Nyong’o), and skilled Colombian psychologist Graciela (Oscar® winner Penélope Cruz) on a lethal, breakneck mission to retrieve it, while also staying one-step ahead of a mysterious woman, Lin Mi Sheng (Bingbing Fan, X-Men: Days of Future Past), who is tracking their every move.
Nine Days
Release Date: January 22, 2021
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Producer: Jason Michael Berman, Mette-Marie Kongsved, Laura Tunstall, Matthew Lindner and Datari Turner
Director: Edson Oda
Screenwriters: Edson Oda
Starring: Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, David Rysdahl , Arianna Ortiz, Tony Hale, Bill Skarsgård, Perry Smith, Geraldine Hughes
What if being born is not the beginning but the goal? In a house distant from the reality we know, a reclusive man named Will interviews prospective candidates—personifications of human souls—for the privilege he once had: to be born. Five contenders emerge. During the course of nine days, Will tests each of them, but he can choose only one. The victor will be rewarded with a coveted opportunity to become a newborn in the real world, while the others will cease to exist—nine days is everything they’ll ever experience.
Cinderella
Release Date: February 5, 2021
Studio: Sony Pictures
Producer: James Corden and Leo Pearlman
Director: Kay Cannon
Screenwriters: Kay Cannon
Starring: Camila Cabello, James Corden, Idina Menzel, Pierce Brosnan, John Mulaney, Billy Porter, Tallulah Greive, Luke Latchman, Beverley Knight, Fra Free, Mary Higgins, and Maddie Baillio and Charlotte Spencer
The adaptation is described as a modern retelling of the classic story of Cinderella, with Camilla Cabello as Cinderella with Tony winner Idina Menzel as the Evil Stepmother, Tony and Emmy winner Billy Porter as the Fairy Godmother, Pierce Brosnan as the King, Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Robert, Minnie Driver as Queen Beatrice, and John Mulaney, James Corden & Romesh Ranganathan as the mice-turned-footmen.
The United States Vs. Billie Holiday
Release Date: February 12, 2021
Studio: Paramount
Producers: New Slate Ventures, Lee Daniels Entertainment, Roth Kirschenbaum Films with Jordan Fudge, Daniels, Pamela Oas Williams and Tucker Tooley
Director: Lee Daniels
Screenwriters: Suzan-Lori Parks
Cast: Andra Day, Trevante Rhodes, Garrett Hedlund & Natasha Lyonne
The pic follows Holiday (played by multi Grammy and NAACP nominee singer-songwriter Andra Day) during her career as she is targeted by the Federal Department of Narcotics with an undercover sting operation led by black Federal Agent Jimmy Fletcher, with whom she had a tumultuous affair. The pic will intimately examine Holiday’s struggles with addiction, fame and heartbreaking love.
Judas and the Black Messiah
Release Date: 2021
Studio: Warner Bros
Producer: Charles D. King, Ryan Coogler
Director: Shaka King
Screenwriters: Shaka King and Will Berson
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Martin Sheen, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Lil Rel Howery, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Algee Smith, Dominique Thorne, Caleb Eberhardt, Amari Cheatom
The story follows the rise and demise of Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya) as seen through the eyes of William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield), a criminal who cut a deal with the FBI to infiltrate the Panthers. O’Neal helped create rifts within the organization, kept tabs on Hampton and, when the time came, drugged the 21-year old activist on the night of the raid, which ultimately saw officers gun him down.
The film is a Warner Bros. Pictures presentation, in association with MACRO Films, Participant and BRON Creative, and will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Fatale
Release Date: February 2021
Studio: Lionsgate
Producer: David Loughery & Roxanne Taylor
Director: Deon Taylor
Screenwriters: David Loughery
Starring: Hilary Swank, Michael Ealy, Mike Colter, Tyrin Turner, Sam Daly, Geoffrey Owens and Damaris Lewis.
Fatale centers on married man Derrick Tyler (Ealy) who finds himself living a nightmare as he is relentlessly compromised, out-witted and morally manipulated by Val Quinlan (Swank), a female detective with whom he had a wild one-night stand. How far will he go to save his marriage from his mistake?