Black Hollywood Progress

With more People of Color in Screen Actor, Director, Writer, Cinematography & Producer guilds eligible for Oscar Nominations by Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (AMPAS), Black achievement in Hollywood has unevenly accelerated since 2002.

As a Laserdisc-DVD-Blu-ray-4K Blu-ray collector and critic of thousands of Hollywood movies dated since 1931, I’ve earned a measure credibility identifying talent that makes great pictures and progress by Black filmmakers and Blacks in movies since then.

To call 2002 a historic year for Hollywood is an understatement. Denzel Washington won the Oscar for Best Actor (Training Day), the second time a Black actor won. Halle Berry won the Oscar for Best Actress (Monster’s Ball), the first time a Black actress won. Sidney Poitier , the first Black actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor in 1964, also received a Lifetime Achievement Oscar for his outstanding body of work.

Increasing memberships in the Screen Actor, Director, Writer & Producer guilds helped drive artistic recognition and more jobs for Black, Brown and Asian talent in Hollywood. Guild award wins and Golden Globe award wins have been building blocks to more Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (AMPAS) memberships since that breakthrough year.

Substantial change, however, was exceedingly slow. In 2009, Geoffrey Fletcher finally became the first Black writer to win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (Precious).

In 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported that AMPAs had 5,800 members, with only 6% Non-white and 23% female. Those embarrassing low percentages prompted progressive Whites in Hollywood to help press for progress.

In 2013, Cheryl Boone Isaacs became the first Black President of AMPAS and Paris Barclay became the first Black to helm the Producers Guild of America. Blacks and other People of Color could anticipate progress, albeit slowly.

Concerning AMPAS membership diversity, Cheryl Boone Isaacs said “The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up.” She launched a multi-year initiative to double diversity AMPAS voters by 2020. Another AMPAS initiative accelerated the pipeline of People of Color behind the camera.

Isaacs also launched fundraising for the extraordinary Academy Museum of Motion Pictures opened in 2021. The $480 million Academy Museum honors Jewish founders of the movie industry in Hollywood, but also honors People of Color, including those whose opportunities were limited in early Hollywood. The through-line of Isaac’s initiatives grew AMPAS membership from 8% People of Color in 2015 to 19% in 2022.

In 2014, Steve McQueen became the first Black director-producer to co-win the Oscar for Best Picture (12 Years A Slave).

In 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported that AMPAS voters were still 91% white and 76% male.

In 2017, Jordan Peele became the first a Black to win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Get Out) and Dede Gardner became another Black producer to co-win the Oscar for Best Picture (Moonlight). Though Cheryl Boone Isaacs left her role that year, Whoopi Goldberg joined the AMPAS Board of Directors and helped keep the progress advancing.

In 2018, Kobe Bryant became the first Black to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film (Dear Basketball).

In 2025, AMPAS grew to 11,104 members, represented by 33% women and 24% from underrepresented communities. Another key demographic rise is that 24% of members reside outside America.

Guild, Golden Globe & AMAPS initiatives, memberships, nominations & awards are essential ingredients, but most progress is occurring because Hollywood, Netflix, Prime and Apple studio bosses bow to the most important color in entertainment markets, Green.

Since 1980, America’s population of People of Color has grown faster than White Americans. In a world with many alternatives to cinema, Black, Brown & Asian talent attract markets starving to see themselves and their stories represented with high production values as 3-dimensional characters. Yet Hollywood’s “Old Guard” was slow to adapt.

In 1980, $10 million budget Stir Crazy directed by Sidney Poitier and starring Richard Pryor became the first Black-directed movie to make $100 million ($397 million in 2026). That financial success opened the door for 1980s comedy movies starring Eddie Murphy and Whoopi Goldberg that made over $100-300 million.

Their success opened the door in 1984 for The Cosby Show to employ more black talent in front and behind the camera. It became the #1 TV program for 5 straight years. Cosby Show success enabled Will Smith’s Fresh Prince TV career in 1990 and his movie career later.

In 1990, Spike Lee received a Best Director Oscar Nomination for Do The Right Thing. Given his penchant for calling out Hollywood racism, however, cause a Best Picture and Best Director nomination snub for Spike’s apogee film, Malcolm X in 1992. Without that picture or director nomination, Denzel Washington had less chance to win a deserved Oscar for Best Actor Oscar in Malcolm X. (No shade intended for Al Pacino who should have won a Best Actor Oscar years earlier).

Though he remained a Hollywood outsider for decades, Spike opened more doors for John Singleton, Carl Franklin, Bill Duke, and several others to direct Hollywood-budgeted films. Spike finally a long overdue Oscar in 2019 for Best Adapted Screenplay (BlacKkKlansman).

RELATED: Black Hollywood History

Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Morgan Freeman, and others did award-worthy work from 1989-2001. The big break came in March 2002, when the Screen Actors Guild, younger and more diverse than AMPAS membership, presented Halle Berry the Oscar for Best Actress Award, Denzel Washington the Oscar for Best Actor, Sidney Poitier the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.

Sidney Poitier, Spike Lee, John Singleton, Antoine Fuqua, Steve McQueen, Barry Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, F. Gary Gray, Ryan Coogler, Tim Story, Jordan Peele, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Peter Ramsey, Malcolm D. Lee, and Lee Daniels have directed movies that grossed over $100 million box office or won Oscars/Golden Globes and expanded the international reach of Black-directed movies.

Though based in Atlanta, Tyler Perry built a major studio and directed a slew of profitable movies that grossed $60-90 million box office. His movies have provided work for Black talent and more visibility to Hollywood executives.

Ryan Coogler, Antoine Fuqua, Ava DuVernay, F. Gary Gray, Tim Story, Peter Ramsey, Steven Caple Jr, and Nia DaCosta have directed movies budgeted over $100 million utilizing plenty of Black talent.

Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, Jamie Foxx, Halle Berry, Forest Whitaker, Idris Elba, Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, and Michael B. Jordan have headlined many A-List budget movies. More movies featuring black themes, writers, directors, and producers got better financing. More Blacks star in a wider variety of Drama, Sci-Fi, Action, Comedy, Romantic, and Musical movies and TV programs.

RELATED: Black Oscar Winners & Nominees

Movie and TV program producers often choose actors and pay them according to Q Ratings that measure how well consumers recall and like a given actor. Q Ratings help determine the probability of a movie or TV program making a profit. After Bill Cosby, Shonda Rhimes was the black difference-maker for Q Ratings.

Shonda Rhimes award-winning, money-making success in producing Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder helped Channing Dungey become the first African-American president of ABC Entertainment Group. Dungey in turn, green-lighted more TV programming for People of Color, the springboard for many Hollywood careers. Competition with ABC influenced TV executives to hire more women and people of color in 3-dimensional dramatic, comedic, action and musical roles who would otherwise languish after 1 or 2 movies. As a result, Q Ratings increased enough to influence the inclusion of more black talent in big-budget movies.

The advent of Streaming (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock) is forcing Hollywood studios and Cable TV channels to hire more black talent. Excluding the 2015 and 2016 Academy Awards “White-Out”, Oscar voters are growing more in line with major guild and Golden Globe voters, movie critics, and the movie-going public.

Denzel Washington does not have to carry the weight of “Black Hollywood” as Sidney Poitier did and Dorothy Dandridge was denied.

Cicely Tyson, Forest Whitaker, Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Jamie Foxx, Laurence Fishburne, Viola Davis, Will Smith, Terence Howard, Idris Elba, Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Hudson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Octavia Spencer, Djimon Hounsou, Sanaa Lathan, Queen Latifah, Don Cheadle, Mahershala Ali, Zoe Saldana, Donald Glover, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Kaluuya, Sophie Okonedo, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Jeffrey Wright, Regina Hall, Regina King, Morris Chestnut, Gabourey Sidibe, Chadwick Boseman, Ruth Negga, Michael B. Jordan, and David Oyelowo have starred in movies that raked in guild nominations, awards, and good profits.

Earlier, I mentioned that Hollywood cares most about big Green. In 2017, Jordan Peele’s Get Out cost only $5 million to produce and a couple million to market, yet made $255 million box office plus a likely $100 million in Broadcast, Cable, Streaming, Blu-ray & DVD revenue. With an amazing profit ratio on his resume, writer-director-actor Peele had no problem raising a $20-50 million budgets for his next films, Us and Nope.

Hollywood loves Denzel Washington because his movies rarely exceed $75 million budget and typically generate $100-266 million in box office, plus millions more in Broadcast, Cable, Streaming, Blu-ray & DVD revenue. But if Disney Studios hadn’t seen five Will Smith blockbusters, they would not have greenly an epic-scale budget to produce and market Black Panther.

Hollywood studios loved Will Smith because many of his movies from 1996 to 2017 cost $100-200 million to make & promote, but earned $300-$820 million box office, plus millions more in Broadcast, Cable, Streaming, Blu-ray & DVD revenue. That gave Hollywood studios proof that epic-scale movies starring black people CAN generate over $500 million in total revenue with $2-4 of total revenue for every $1 of production & marketing costs.

2018’s financial success is the big story. From a $200 million production & $75 million marketing budget, it made $1.35 billion box office revenue, plus $350 million in Cable, Broadcast, Streaming, DVD & Blu-ray revenue for $1.7 billion total revenue.

In 2019, Ruth Carter became the first Black to win the Oscar for Best Costume Design (Black Panther) and Hannah Bechler became the first Black to win the Oscar for Best Production Design (Black Panther). Ludwig Göransson, Ryan Cooglers college roommate won the Oscar for Best Original Score for (Black Panther).

Black Panther drove up the Q Ratings for every featured actor in the movie. Two Creed movies costing a combined $85 million tallied $360 million box office also raised the Q Rating of Michael B. Jordan and the Hollywood influence of writer-director-producer Ryan Coogler and his co-producer wife, Zinzi Coogler.

Now there are more black directors, writers, actors, cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, film editors, sound editors, assistant directors, and casting directors working than ever before. That virtuous cycle has led to a larger pool of movies written, produced, directed, and acted by people of color that attract more guild Golden Globe, and Oscar nominations & wins.

RELATED: Ruth Carter – Black Panther Costumer

Spike Lee finally got some props. His 2019 Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar is shared with Kevin Willmott, Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz. That is special for two reasons. Since Spike opened more Hollywood doors for black folks than anyone else, it was good to see him win on the “Big Stage.”

Tangentially, it thanks movie directors before him like Gordon Parks, Melvin Van Peebles, Sidney Poitier, Charles Burnett, Michael Schultz, Euzhan Palcy, and Kevin Hooks. Spike has proven that he is true Auteur.

In closing, we should consider Will Packer in 2022. Black folks also need a next-level movie mogul in Hollywood. Will Packer is a magna cum laude graduate of Florida A&M University and holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering.

Will produced his first low-budget movie in 1994. With perseverance, Will expanded his portfolio to produce Ride Along 2, No Good Deed, Think Like a Man, Think Like a Man Too, Ride Along, Takers, Obsessed, Stomp the Yard and the mega-hit Straight Outta Compton.

As the first black producer of the Academy Awards Show, this was Will Packer’s moment to go next level as a Hollywood Mogul.

The show’s three hosts hit their marks with aplomb. The stage sets were so incredible, they deserved awards. Academy Awards viewership was up compared to the prior year. The show was going swimmingly. Having made a documentary about Black Hair, Chris Rock knew he was stepping on dynamite with that joke about Jada.

Chris Rock had to be nuts to insult her hair situation in front of her husband and a worldwide audience. Will Smith knew his Oscar for Best Actor was coming.

That brings us to an unforgettable saying by Denzel Washington, “At your highest moment, be most careful. That’s when the devil comes for you.” Sadly, the Devil got both of them. Will Smith should have solved his beef with Chris Rock privately that evening. Instead the “Slap” happened.

Far more than Chris Rock, Will Smith pissed off millions of people, angered comedians, and stole the spotlight from a distinguished Black movie producer. He even stole what should have been his crowning achievement with the Oscar for Best Actor,

But the show went on, so has Will Packer.

Further progress is needed in Black-on-Black romance movies, Black female salaries and more Blacks winning Oscars for Best Actress. It still pisses more off that Angeles Bassett doesn’t have Oscars for Best Actress (What’s Love Got to Do With It) and Best Supporting Actress (Wakanda Forever). She won the Golden Globe for that role.

It also feels like a robbery that Viola Davis had to be nominated as Best Supporting Actress (Fences) to win an Oscar for the same role she won a Tony Award for Best Actress on Broadway. For those who don’t know, acting on Broadway is harder.

That brings us to Sinners released in April 2025 from a $90 million production budget. It made $370 million and Warner Brothers marketing knows that they underestimated Ryan Coogler’s superior storytelling, Michael B Jordan’s star power and their residual attractiveness from two Black Panther movies. Warner Brothers screwed up by not releasing Sinners on more screens with early promotion in Brazil, Nigeria, The UK, France, Germany, Ghana and South Africa. Instead of $370 million total box office, it could have earned $450 million worldwide with only $15 million more cost.

Critics, however, got the memo. The guilds, Golden Globes bestowed it with numerous nominations & awards. It received a 16 nominations and 4 Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan and the first female to win Best Cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Filipino-Black Creole descent).

That said, I don’t understand how Sinners was passed over for Best Performance by Cast when it won that award from the Screen Actors Guild and had the Best Original Screenplay. Nor can I stomach that Sinners, a movie that garnered the most Oscar nominations in history, was not chosen Best Picture by AMPAS members. I felt something original and tangible in Sinners that will stay with me like Casablanca, Sunset Boulevard, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, and Alien.

In contrast, One Battle After Another presented a mishmash of negative tropes that included three great actors (DiCaprio, Penn, Del Toro), and a wasted role by Regina Hall. I had to force myself 3 times to get from beginning to end of One Battle After Another. And given that Shakespeare movies have been beaten to death by Hollywood, I don’t see how Hamnet could have won the Screen Actors Guild’s Best Picture award.

I do understand, however, that AMPAS passes over the real “Best Director” in some years to award another for a nominated movie plus an excellent body of work. On that basis I claim that Ryan Coogler was the real “Best Director”, but Paul Thomas Anderson received “Best Director” for One Battle After Another plus an excellent body of work that includes Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, Minority Report, and Boogie Nights.

My sense is that a majority of AMPAS members (non-actor white males) could not relate to the ground-breaking original story performed par excellence by a Black-led, multi-cultural cast. But pause for a moment. Wasn’t 12 Years A Slave voted Best Picture in 2014? I believe the majority of whites voted for that specific movie as a partial relief for White Guilt about slavery.

I doubt that another Black-themed movie will win the Oscar for Best Picture or a Black woman will win Best Actress until People of Color and women become larger percentages of AMPAS, Golden Globe and Screen Actor Guild memberships.

The big picture is slightly more positive. Black Hollywood success is no longer anchored to one or two actors, directors, writers or producers. Movie studio bosses trust more Black filmmakers to larger budgets for drama, action, comedy, sci-fi, horror, documentary, animation and bio-pic movies that are profitable.

On that note, we should not be surprised the 2026 Michael movie (Part 1) directed by Antoine Fuqua was produced for ~$200 million. It appears headed for $1 billion in box office and Lions Gate has green-lit Part 2 for production.

Tribute to Michael Jackson

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