Black Reel Award for Outstanding Director


The Black Reel Award for Outstanding Director is an award presented annually by the Black Reel Awards. It is given in honor of a film director who has exhibited outstanding directing while working in the film industry.

History

Director, Malcolm D. Lee took home the first award for The Best Man at the 1st Annual Black Reel Awards.
The Black Reel Awards for Outstanding Director and Black Reel Award for Outstanding Film has been closely linked throughout their history. Out of the 22 films that have been awarded Outstanding Film, 10 have also been awarded Outstanding Director.
Since its inception, the award has been given to 18 directors or directing teams. Ava DuVernay, Ryan Coogler, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Jordan Peele & Steve McQueen has received the most awards in this category with two. Spike Lee has been nominated eleven times, more than any other individual. At age 29, Ryan Coogler became the youngest director to win this award for his work on Creed. Thomas Carter holds the record for the oldest director to win at 52 for Coach Carter.
Brothers, Albert Hughes & Allen Hughes are the only directing team to share this award as they won for The Book of Eli at the 11th Annual Black Reel Awards. Gina Prince-Bythewood became the first woman to be nominated and win in this category for Love & Basketball.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

Multiple nominations and wins

Multiple wins

; 3 wins
; 2 wins

Multiple Nominees

; 12 nominations
; 6 nominations
; 5 nominations
; 4 nominations
; 3 nominations
; 2 nominations

Age superlatives

RecordDirectorFilmAge
Oldest winnerThomas CarterCoach Carter52
Oldest nomineeSpike LeeHighest 2 Lowest68
Youngest winnerRyan CooglerCreed29
Youngest nomineeRick FamuyiwaThe Wood26

Diversity of Nominees

Female nominees/winners

Twenty female directors have been nominated for a total twenty-eight times in this category, and three have won the award.

Documentary nominees/winners

Three directors of a documentary film have been nominated in this category.

Animated nominees/winners

One director of an animated film has been nominated in this category.

Non-English language nominees/winners

One director of a non-English film has been nominated in this category.
bold — Indicates winner

† — Film nominated for Outstanding Film

‡ — Film won for Outstanding Film