The nominations for the 2023 Black Reel Awards (“The Bolts”) were announced today and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King led the way with 14 nominations each, including Outstanding Film, Outstanding Director and Outstanding Actress.
Next was Chinonye Chukwu’s Till with 11, Elegance Bratton’s The Inspection with 10 and both Nikyatu Jusu’s Nanny and Jordan Peele’s Nope with 8.
Several actors found themselves with double nominations including Gabrielle Union in Supporting Actress for The Inspection and Voice Performance for Strange World, Thuso Mbedu in Supporting Actress and Breakthrough Actress for The Woman King and Jeremy Pope in Lead Actor and Breakthrough Actor for The Inspection.
The 23rd Annual Black Reel Awards will stream on our site www.blackreelawards.com on Monday, February 6th at 8pm ET / 5 pm PT.
Here is the full list of nominations.
Outstanding Film
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Devotion
Nope
Till
The Woman King
Outstanding Director
Elegance Bratton, The Inspection
Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Woman King
Chinonye Chukwu, Till
Ryan Coogler, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Jordan Peele, Nope
Outstanding Actor
John Boyega, Breaking
Sterling K. Brown, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
Daniel Kaluuya, Nope
Jonathan Majors, Devotion
Jeremy Pope, The Inspection
Outstanding Actress
Viola Davis, The Woman King
Danielle Deadwyler, Till
Anna Diop, Nanny
Regina Hall, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
Letitia Wright, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Outstanding Supporting Actor
Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
Micheal Ward, Empire of Light
Michael K. Williams, Breaking
Bokeem Woodbine, The Inspection
Jeffrey Wright, The Batman
Outstanding Supporting Actress
Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Thuso Mbedu, The Woman King
Janelle Monáe, Glass Onion: a Knives Out Mystery
Keke Palmer, Nope
Gabrielle Union, The Inspection
Outstanding Screenplay
Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elegance Bratton, The Inspection
Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny
Jordan Peele, Nope
Keith Beauchamp, Michael Reilly & Chinonye Chukwu, Till
Outstanding Documentary Feature
Aftershock (Paula Eislet & Tonya Lewis Lee)
Descendant (Margaret Brown)
Is That Black Enough for You? (Elvis Mitchell)
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues (Sacha Jenkins)
Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)
Outstanding International Film
Neptune Frost (Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman, Rwanda)
Our Father, the Devil (Ellie Foumbi, France)
Saint Omer (Alice Diop, France)
Outstanding Ensemble
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (casting director Sarah Finn)
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul (casting director Shannon Reis)
The Inspection (casting director Kim Coleman)
Till (casting director Kim Coleman)
The Woman King (casting director Aisha Coley)
Outstanding Voice Performance
Zazie Beetz, The Bad Guys
Idris Elba, Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Keke Palmer, Lightyear
Zoe Saldana, Avatar: the Way of Water
Gabrielle Union, Strange World
Outstanding Cinematography
Autmun Durald Arkapwa, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Robert Richardson, Emancipation
Hoyte Van Hoytema, Nope
Bobby Bukowski, Till
Polly Morgan, The Woman King
Outstanding Costume Design
Ruth E. Carter, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Lorraine Coppin, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.
Charlese Antoinette Jones, Nanny
Marci Rodgers, Till
Gersha Phillips, The Woman King
Outstanding Editing
Michael P. Shawver, Kelley Dixon & Jennifer Lame, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Daysha Broadway, I Wanna Dance with Somebody
Jason Pollard & Alma Herrera-Pazmino, Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
James D. Wilcox, Thirteen Lives
Terilyn A. Shropshire, The Woman King
Outstanding Production Design
Hannah Beachler, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Wynn Thomas, Devotion
Ruth De Jong, Nope
Curtis Beech, Till
Akin Mckenzie, The Woman King
Outstanding Score
Common, Alice
Craig Deleon, End of the Road
Tanerélle & Bartek Gliniak, Nanny
Michael Abels, Nope
Terence Blanchard, The Woman King
Outstanding Original Song
“Born Again” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
“Keep Rising” from The Woman King
“Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
“Paper Airplanes” from A Jazzman’s Blues
“Stand Up” from Till
Outstanding Soundtrack
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
A Jazzman’s Blues
Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story
Till
The Woman King
Outstanding Independent Film
Emergency (Carey Williams)
Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul (Adamma Ebo)
The Inspection (Elegance Bratton)
Master (Mariama Diallo)
Nanny (Nikyatu Jusu)
Outstanding Short Film
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison (Cinque Northern)
Elegy: My Two Months in Harlem (Andre Lambertson)
Fannie (Christine Swanson)
New Moon (Jeremie Balais, Raul Domingo & Jeffig Le Bars)
Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.