Tanya Hamilton

One of the bright lights of an otherwise weak slate of black films last year was Hamilton’s 60s-era period film Night Catches Us. Here’s hoping that her career will only reach new heights in the future.

Career Highlight:
Night Catches Us (2010)

(Photo by Donna Ward/Getty Images)

Lee Daniels

Daniels became just the second African-American ever to be Oscar nominated for best director last year, when his controversial 2009 feature Precious captured the hearts of both critics and audiences.

Career Highlights:
Shadowboxer (2005)
Precious (2009)

(AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

Antoine Fuqua

Fuqua has emerged as a premiere action genre director. His gritty 2001 classic Training Day won Denzel Washington his first (and so far only) Academy Award for best actor.

Career Highlights:
The Replacement Killers (1998)
Training Day (2001)
Brooklyn’s Finest (2010)

(DAMIEN MEYER/AFP/Getty Images)

Gina Prince-Bythewood

As one of the few black female directors to get any love in Hollywood, Blythewood has given it right back to her audience. Her Love & Basketball is one of the most beloved black romantic films of all time.

Career Highlights:
Love & Basketball (2000)
The Secret Life of Bees (2005)

(Courtesy of D. Stevens)

Mario Van Peebles

Peebles followed in father’s famous footsteps with an eclectic career which began with the gangster classic New Jack City and as of late has him directing critically acclaimed episodes of television shows like Damages and Lost.

Career Highlights:
New Jack City (1991)
Posse (1993)
Panther (1995)
BAADASSSSS! (2003)

(Photo by Olivia Salazar/WireImage)

Carl Franklin

Franklin became a critical darling with his complex 1992 noir thriller One False Move. Since then he’s become a favorite collaborator of Denzel Washington’s, directed the star in two charismatic lead roles.

Career Highlights:
One False Move (1992)
Devil in a Blue Dress (1994)
Out of Time (2003)

(Photo by L. Cohen/WireImage)

Julie Dash

Dash became the first black female director to get wide distribution of her work, with her 1991 critical fave Daughters of the Dust. Since then she has mostly focused on shorts and indy projects. According to the Detroit Free Press, “In all of Dash’s films, black women belie the Hollywood stereotypes.

Career Highlight:
Daughters of the Dust (1991)

(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for the UK Film Council)

Reginald Hudlin

Hudlin had the comedy market cornered in the early 90s with his raucous hits House Party and Boomerang. He’s recently kept the laughs rolling while serving as a producer on The Boondocks

Career Highlights
House Party (1990)
Boomerang (1992)
The Great White Hype (1996)

(Photo by David Livingston/Getty Images)

George Tillman, Jr.

Staying somewhat under the radar, George Tillman, Jr. has carved out an incredibly successful mainstream Hollywood career. After breaking out with “black films” like Soul Food and Barbershop, he moved on to straight action features like last year’s Faster starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.

Career Highlights
Soul Food (1997)
Men of Honor (2000)
Barbershop (2002)
Notorious (2009)

(Photo/2010 CBS Films Inc.)

Keenan Ivory Wayans

Besides his groundbreaking work on TV’s In Living Color in the 90s, Wayans has both produced and directed some of the silliest and most popular comedies of the last couple decades. His 2000 hit Scary Movie still stands as the highest grossing film ever made by an African-American director.

Career Highlights:
I’m Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994)
Scary Movie (2000)

(GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images)

Kasi Lemmons

After first making an impression as actress (she played Jodie Foster’s best friend in The Silence of the Lambs), Lemmons moved behind the camera. She helmed the award-winning Eve’s Bayou and Talk to Me in the span of a decade/

Career Highlights:
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Talk to Me (2007)

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Robert Townsend

Despite lots of appearances in film and television, Townshend’s breakthrough project — the satire Hollywood Shuffle — will likely always be his most cherished work. The 1987 film still holds up as a clever and contentious look at how blacks are treated in the movies.

Career Highlights:
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
The Five Heartbeats (1991)
The Meteor Man (1993)

(AP Photo/Mark Mainz)

The Hughes Brothers

These twin brothers became indy sensations when they released their dark and disturbing film about inner city violence Menace II Society in 1993. They have only worked sporadically since but scored their biggest hit ever last year with the Denzel Washington thriller The Book of Eli

Career Highlights:
Menace II Society (1993)
Dead Presidents (1995)
American Pimp (1999)

(Photo by Gregg DeGuire/PictureGroup)

F. Gary Gray

After a very successful career as music video director (TLC’s “Waterfalls” and Coolio’s “Fantastic Voyage”, just to name a few), Gray went to Hollywood and made a big impact. In both comedy and action, he’s proven an adept director.

Career Highlights:
Friday (1995)
Set It Off (1996)
The Italian Job (2003)
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

(Photo by Arnold Turner/FilmMagic)

Denzel Washington

Washington’s storied film acting career was already the stuff of legend when he stepped behind the camera for the first time in 2002. He has shown the same grace and dignity as a director that has distinguished his movie roles.

Career Highlights
Antwone Fisher (2002)
The Great Debaters (2007)

(JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images)

Tyler Perry

Polarizing, but undeniably popular — Perry has cultivated a diehard fan base for his trademark comedies and dramas. Arguably the most commercially successful black director of all time, Perry has the clout to get more personal projects (like Daniels’ Precious) seen by a wider audience.

Career Highlights
Madea’s Family Reunion (2006)
Why Did I Get Married? (2007)
Madea Goes to Jail (2009)
For Colored Girls (2010)

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Oscar Micheaux

A real trailblazer in film, Michaeaux’s independently produced ‘race-films’ of the silent and early talkie era were able to carve out a little niche in a largely white dominated cinema.

Career Highlights:
The Homesteader (1919)
Within Our Gates (1919)
Body and Soul (1924)

(Library of Congress)

Sidney Poitier

Before Denzel jumped behind the camera, Poitier proved it would work when during the height of the blaxploitation era he helmed some of the more uproarious black comedies of his day, highlighting the talents of Bill Cosby (Uptown Saturday Night and Let’s Do It Again) and Richard Pryor (Stir Crazy).

Career Highlights:
Buck and the Preacher (1972)
Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
Let’s Do It Again (1975)
Stir Crazy (1980)

(Moneta Sleet, Jr./Ebony Collection via AP Images)

John Singleton

The youngest and first black filmmaker to ever be nominated for best director, Singleton became a household name in 1991 for his brilliant film Boyz N the Hood. He’s switched between the thought-provoking drama and blockbuster ever since with consistently winning results.

Career Highlights
Boyz N the Hood (1991)
Poetic Justice (1993)
Rosewood (1997)
Shaft (2000)
Four Brothers (2005)

(AP Photo/Jennifer Graylock)

Spike Lee

What can you say about Spike Lee that hasn’t already been said? Besides be a provocateur of the first order, he’s also been one of the most prolific and respected directors (of any color) of the last thirty years.

Career Highlights
She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
School Daze (1988)
Do the Right Thing (1989)
Jungle Fever (1991)
Malcolm X (1992)
Crooklyn (1994)
4 Little Girls (1997)
He Got Game (1998)
Bamboozled (2000)
25th Hour (2002)
Inside Man (2006)
When the Levees Broke (2006)

(Image courtesy of HBO)