Denzel and Spike ✖️🎺 welcome you all to the sixth annual 20 Films by Black Directors challenge! 🎬
The challenge is to watch 20 films by Black directors and, if you can, to review them (even one sentence is fine!).
Please use the tag "20 Black Directors 2026" so that we can easily find each other's reviews and lists!
Progress: 24/20 (1 short)
🎬 = Watched
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THE RULES:
- Watch at least 20 movies directed by Black directors
- From January 1st to December 31st 2026
- Rewatches are allowed
- Mini-series are allowed
- Short movies are also allowed but should not be the majority of the movies
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Like last year, I am suggesting categories, but they…
Denzel and Spike ✖️🎺 welcome you all to the sixth annual 20 Films by Black Directors challenge! 🎬
The challenge is to watch 20 films by Black directors and, if you can, to review them (even one sentence is fine!).
Please use the tag "20 Black Directors 2026" so that we can easily find each other's reviews and lists!
Progress: 24/20 (1 short)
🎬 = Watched
-------------------------------------------------
THE RULES:
- Watch at least 20 movies directed by Black directors
- From January 1st to December 31st 2026
- Rewatches are allowed
- Mini-series are allowed
- Short movies are also allowed but should not be the majority of the movies
----------------------------------------------------
Like last year, I am suggesting categories, but they are not mandatory. Feel free to use all or just some of these categories, or apply several categories to the same film.
CATEGORIES:
🎙️ 1. One movie related to music or dance (could be a musical, concert, biopic, or documentary about a musical artist, etc.) ✅️
🌟 2. Two movies from the Letterboxd Top 250 Narrative Feature Films by Black Directors list ✅️✅️✅️
🌍 3. Two movies from Africa ✅✅✅✅️
Helpful lists: 50 ans de cinéma africain (known classics of African cinema from the 60s until 2000s), African cinema essentials)
🌈 4. One Queer movie ✅️
Helpful lists: Black Queer Film, Queer Black 21st Century films
♀️ 5. At least seven movies directed by a woman ✅✅✅✅️✅️
Helpful lists: Black Women Directors/Writers, Black Women Film and Video Artists, Black Women and Nonbinary Directors
🎥 6. One film directed by Charles Burnett, Gordon Parks Jr. and/or Bill Gunn
🧙🏾 7. One fantasy film ✅️
Helpful list: African Fantasy and Folklore movies, Fantasy by Black American directors
🔍 8. One documentary ✅
🤩 9. One film watched during the 2025 Challenge and rated 4 or more
❓ 10. Create your own category!
✊🏿 Bonus: A movie directed by Spike Lee and starring Denzel Washington (this is a bonus category inspired by the backdrop picture!)
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🔎 SOME HELP TO FIND MOVIES:
STREAMING:
🌎Black directors from all over the world: kweliTV, The Criterion channel,
🌍African films: Afrolandtv, Cinaf, Ciné-Afrique (available in Switzerland and Germany only), Artmattan TV (US and Canada). And Netflix also has a wide selection of African movies.
RESOURCES:
🔹 Black Life on Film by Adam Davie's . The list also includes very helpful links to different genres of movies (but not all the directors on this list are Black, so check if you're not sure!).
🔹My own list of African Fantasy and Folklore movies list
🔹2000+ Films Directed By Black American Filmmakers
🔹️Letterboxd Official Top 250 Narrative Feature Films by Black Directors
🔹️blackfilmarchive.com/Films-by-decade. As per Suping description's in the comments: "gives YouTube links for lots of films. It's an archive about depictions of Black folk, not necessarily by Black folk;"
🔹In response to the Criterion Collection
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PARTICIPANTS:
Xellence | Mack | abystopia | Carlos (Hache) | Zoya | Tarik Dingle | theseus_space | Niranjan | Jon | Nick Atkins | evilchachouuu | Supin | micahholmquist | Leah| micahholmquist | Ponders | Sam Q | Kieran | pinkstrawbery | Benjamou | excursion |
This is my ongoing list, which will surely change during the year. Check notes for the categories, directors' names, and countries.
