Morgan Freeman is an American actor, producer, and narrator. In a career spanning five decades, he has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as a nomination for a Tony Award. He was honored with the Kennedy Center Honor in 2008, an AFI Life Achievement Award in 2011, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2012, and Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2018. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time.
Bruce Almighty is a 2003 American fantasy comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk. The film stars Jim Carrey as Bruce Nolan, a down-on-his-luck television reporter who complains to God that he is not doing his job correctly and is offered the chance to try being God himself for one week. It co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Philip Baker Hall and Catherine Bell. The film is Shadyac and Carrey's third collaboration, after Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) and Liar Liar (1997).
Amistad is a 1997 American historical drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the events in 1839 aboard the Spanish slave ship La Amistad, during which Mende tribesmen abducted for the slave trade managed to gain control of their captors' ship off the coast of Cuba, and the international legal battle that followed their capture by the Washington, a U.S. revenue cutter. The case was ultimately resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1841.
Djimon Gaston Hounsou is a Beninese-born American actor. He began his career appearing in music videos and made his film debut in Without You I'm Nothing (1990). He then earned widespread recognition for his role as Cinqué in the Steven Spielberg film Amistad (1997), which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. For his performances in In America (2002) and Blood Diamond (2006), Hounsou was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
The Oracle is a fictional character in The Matrix franchise. She was created by The Wachowskis, and portrayed by Gloria Foster in the first and second film and Mary Alice in the third film. The character also appears in the video game Enter the Matrix and the massively multiplayer online role-playing game The Matrix Online.
The Magical Negro is a trope in American cinema, television, and literature. In the cinema of the United States, the Magical Negro is a supporting stock character who comes to the aid of the protagonists in a film. Magical Negro characters, often possessing special insight or mystical powers, have long been a tradition in American fiction. The old-fashioned word "Negro" is used to imply that a "magical black character" who devotes himself to selflessly helping whites is a throwback to racist stereotypes such as the "Sambo" or "noble savage".
The Legend of Bagger Vance is a 2000 American sports fantasy drama film directed by Robert Redford, and starring Will Smith, Matt Damon, and Charlize Theron. The screenplay by Jeremy Leven is based on Steven Pressfield's 1995 book The Legend of Bagger Vance: A Novel of Golf and the Game of Life. The film is set in 1931 Georgia. It was the final film starring Jack Lemmon and Lane Smith.
Biker Boyz is a 2003 American sports action drama film, directed by Reggie Rock Bythewood and written by Bythewood and Craig Fernandez, based on the 2000 New Times LA article of the same name by Michael Gougis. The film is about a group of underground motorcycle drag racers, and the intense rivalry between a legendary motorcyclist and a young racing prodigy who has formed his own biker club.
Robert Townsend is an American actor, director, comedian, and writer. Townsend is best known for directing the films Hollywood Shuffle (1987), Eddie Murphy Raw (1987), The Meteor Man (1993), The Five Heartbeats (1991) and various other films and stand-up specials. He is especially known for his portrayal of The WB's sitcom The Parent 'Hood 's main character Robert Peterson, the series he created and directed select episodes of ran from 1995 to 1999. Townsend is also known for his role as Donald "Duck" Matthews in his 1991 film The Five Heartbeats. He later wrote, directed and produced Making the Five Heartbeats (2018), a documentary film about the production process and behind the scenes insight into creating the film. Townsend is also known for his production company Townsend Entertainment which has produced films Playin' for Love, In the Hive and more. During the 1980s and early–1990s, Townsend gained national exposure through his stand-up comedy routines and appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Townsend has worked with talent including Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Chris Tucker, Beyoncé, Denzel Washington, Ayo Edebiri, and many more.
Stereotypes of African Americans are misleading beliefs about the culture of people with partial or total ancestry from any black racial groups of Africa whose ancestors resided in the United States since before 1865. These stereotypes are largely connected to the racism and the discrimination faced by African Americans. These beliefs date back to the slavery of black people during the colonial era and they have evolved within American society over time.
In US cinema, Blaxploitation is the film subgenre of action movie derived from the exploitation film genre in the early 1970s, consequent to the combined cultural momentum of the Black civil rights movement, the black power movement, and the Black Panther Party, political and sociological circumstances that facilitated Black artists reclaiming their power of the Representation of the Black ethnic identity in the arts. The term blaxploitation is a portmanteau of the words Black and exploitation, coined by Junius Griffin, president of the Beverly Hills–Hollywood branch of the NAACP in 1972. In criticizing the Hollywood portrayal of the multiracial society of the US, Griffin said that the blaxploitation genre was "proliferating offenses" to and against the Black community, by perpetuating racist stereotypes of inherent criminality.
The presence of African Americans in major motion picture roles has stirred controversy and been limited dating back decades due to lingering racism following slavery and segregation. "Through most of the 20th century, images of African-Americans in advertising were mainly limited to servants like the pancake-mammy Aunt Jemima and Rastus, the chef on the Cream of Wheat box." While African American representation in the film industry has improved over the years, it has not been a linear process; "Race in American cinema has rarely been a matter of simple step-by-step progress. It has more often proceeded in fits and starts, with backlashes coming on the heels of breakthroughs, and periods of intense argument followed by uncomfortable silence."
American actor and producer Morgan Freeman has had a prolific career on film, television and on the stage. His film debut was as an uncredited character in the Sidney Lumet–directed drama The Pawnbroker in 1964. Freeman also made his stage debut in the same year by appearing in the musical Hello, Dolly! He followed this with further stage appearances in The Niggerlovers (1967), The Dozens (1969), Exhibition (1969), and the musical Purlie (1970–1971). He played various characters on the children's television series The Electric Company (1971–1977). Freeman subsequently appeared in the films Teachers in 1984, and Marie in 1985 before making his breakthrough with 1987's Street Smart. His role earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Two years later he appeared in war film Glory (1989), and starred as Hoke Coleburn in the comedy-drama Driving Miss Daisy (1989). Freeman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in the latter and also earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
The white savior is a cinematic trope in which a white central character rescues non-white characters from unfortunate circumstances. This recurs in an array of genres in American cinema, wherein a white protagonist is portrayed as a messianic figure who often gains some insight or introspection in the course of rescuing non-white characters from their plight.
Depictions of race in horror films have been the subject of commentary by fans and academics. Critics have discussed the representation of race in horror films in relation to the presence of racist ideas, stereotypes and tropes within them. The horror genre has conversely also been used to explore social issues including race, particularly following popularization of social thrillers in the 2010s.
This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture. Oscar-nominated or winning performances also honored with nominations or wins at the Black Reel Awards include Barkhad Abdi, Morgan Freeman, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jamie Foxx (Collateral), Djimon Hounsou and Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls).
Serenity is a 2019 American mystery thriller film written, produced and directed by Steven Knight. The film stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou, and Jeremy Strong, and follows a fishing boat captain who is approached by his ex-wife to murder her abusive new husband. First announced in January 2017, principal photography on the film began in Mauritius that July.
African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, or simply Rebel Moon, is a 2023 American epic space opera film directed by Zack Snyder from a screenplay he co-wrote with Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten. Its ensemble cast features Sofia Boutella, Djimon Hounsou, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Bae Doona, Ray Fisher, Charlie Hunnam, and Anthony Hopkins. The film is set in a fictional galaxy ruled by the imperialistic Motherworld, whose military, the Imperium, threatens a village on the moon Veldt. Kora, a former Imperium soldier, ventures on a quest to recruit warriors from across the galaxy to make a stand against the Imperium before they return to Veldt.
The American Society of Magical Negroes is a 2024 American comedy film that satirizes the Magical Negro trope in featuring a young man who joins a clandestine group of magical African Americans committed to enhancing the lives of white individuals. It was written and directed by Kobi Libii in his feature-film debut, and it stars Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, and An-Li Bogan.
