Black women are amazing. Period. Two of the films nominated for Best Movie this year are all about that real-life  Black girl magic. Harriet, starring Cynthia Erivo, tells the life story of legendary freedom fighter Harriet Tubman. Watch Homecoming to relive Beyonce’s epic two-day 2018 Coachella performance and get a peek into all of the hard work that took place behind the scenes. Want more Black woman realness? Watch 2017 Best Movie Winner Hidden Figures. The film uncovered a long-held NASA secret about the Black women “human computers” who were instrumental to the United States’ successful moon landing. 

Want to dive into stories of powerful Black men? Just Mercy starring Michael Bae Jordan and Jamie Foxx is about how lawyer Bryan Stevenson helped get an innocent man named Walter McMillian off of death row in Alabama. Dolemite is My Name, starring Eddie Murphy, gets into all the sad, hilarious, and fascinating details of Rudy Ray Moore’s life. Both films are nominated for Best Movie this year. You can also re-watch Spike Lee’s Oscar-winning film BlacKkKlansman, which is based on the life of Black detective Ron Stallworth who infiltrated the Klu Klux Klan in the 1970s.  The film was also the Best Movie winner at the 2019 BET Awards.  If there is anthem for the protests against police brutality that are currently popping up all over the country, it might be the song from NWA that starts with an expletive and ends with the word “police.” 2016 Best Movie winner Straight Outta Compton is a biopic about the legendary rap crew.

If you’re in the mood for car chases, gunplay, and slick visuals, re-watch Bad Boys For Life. The movie is the third installment of the beloved Bad Boys franchise and it reunited Will Smith and Martin Lawrence on the big screen. Another dynamic duo was Daniel Kaluuya and Jodie Turner-Smith in Lena Waithe’s Queen & Slim. The ultimate action movie, Black Panther, is also worth another watch. In addition to car chases, you get spacecraft chases in the blue skies of Wakanda. It doesn’t hurt that the movie is star-studded and includes the talents of Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whittaker, and more.