Over the course of her career, Gina Prince-Bythewood has proven she can do it all. Across five films and roughly 20 years, she had made an enduring romantic sports story, a southern family drama, a pop star star-crossed romance, a superhero fantasy action film, and a feminist historical epic. And with every new genre the filmmaker has ticked off her list, Prince-Bythewood has shown a mastery for its particularities every time.
Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Pacific Grove, California, Prince-Bythewood attended University of California in Los Angeles, where she studied film and graduated in 1991. After several years as a writer on TV shows like “A Different World” and “South Central,” her first film, 2000’s “Love and Basketball,” was released to critical acclaim. The story of two childhood best friends with a shared love for basketball — and a chronicle of their tumultuous relationship through the years as they both seek to play the sport professionally — was critically acclaimed. The film has endured with one of the most beloved reputations in the romance genre certainly for its decade, but arguably also for all time.
Off the back of “Love and Basketball,” Prince-Bythewood has only made a few other films; many projects she’s worked on, like Sony “Spider-Man” spinoff “Silver & Black,” went unrealized. But each finished project has been excellent, feeling like a logical evolution in her work as an auteur. After acclaimed dramas “The Secret Life of Bees” and “Beyond the Lights,” Prince-Bythewood made the leap to blockbuster filmmaking with Netflix’s Charlize Theron vehicle “The Old Guard,” showing a natural affinity for action scenes, stunt-work, and tense thrills.
That prepped her for her latest film, 2022’s “The Woman King,” a historical epic starring Viola Davis as a general of the Agojie, an all-woman unit of warriors who served the 17th century African kingdom of Dahomey. “The Woman King” received critical acclaim for Davis’ performance, as well as Prince-Bythewood’s directing and screenwriting. That made it sting all the more when the film received zero Oscar nominations, leaving Prince-Bythewood out of the Best Director race. Given Prince-Bythewood’s obvious talent and resume of exceptional films, the question isn’t if she deserves an Oscar; it’s when the Oscars will finally make things right.
Given the filmmaker’s affinity for romances, it’s no surprise that many of the films Prince-Bythewood has cited among her all-time favorites fall into that genre. In particular, she’s singled out “Broadcast News,” James L. Brooks’ beloved 1987 dramatic rom-com about the career and love life of a female producer at a national news network, as one of her most beloved movies. Other films Prince-Bythewood has mentioned as inspirations include Wong Kar-wai’s “In the Mood for Love” and Marcel Camus’ “Black Orpheus.” Aside from romance films, she also has strongly championed movies from Black directors centering Black stories, including “A Dry White Season,” “Devil in a Blue Dress,” and “Claudine.”
With Black History Month 2024 already here, IndieWire decided to look at some of the favorite films of some prominent Black directors. Here are ten of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s recommendations, culled from interviews she has given throughout her career. Selections are listed in no particular order.
-
“Broadcast News” (1987)
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection In 2014, while promoting her romantic drama “Beyond the Lights,” Gina Prince-Bythewood spoke about her five favorite movies in an interview with Rotton Tomatoes. One of the films she selected is James L. Brooks’ beloved romantic comedy about the relationships between three career-driven producers and reporters at a national TV news network. Speaking about the film, Prince-Bythewood praised Holly Hunter’s performance as one that spoke to her personally.
“Holly Hunter’s performance. Her character spoke to me both personally and professionally. I saw myself in that character,” Prince-Bythewood said. “It was hysterically funny, but also I love the kind of movies that make me laugh and cry and feel and it had everything. It’s almost a perfect movie.”
-
“Hoop Dreams” (1994)
Image Credit: ©Fine Line Features/Courtesy Everett Collection Another film Prince-Bythewood selected as one of her five favorites for Rotten Tomatoes was “Hoop Dreams,” from director Steve James. Frequently considered one of the best docs of all-time, the film focuses on five years in the life of two Black Chicago teenagers aspiring to professional basketball stardom.
“A documentary that doesn’t feel like a documentary. It feels like a movie, a movie that I get lost in every time I see it. What’s amazing is if you had scripted it the way it happened people wouldn’t buy it and wouldn’t believe it,” Prince-Bythewood said. “But the fact it happened that way in real life, it was mesmerizing and those two boys they were real and you rooted for them and you felt for them and you went through every emotion with them.”
-
“Out of Sight” (1998)
Image Credit: ©Universal/Courtesy Everett Collection Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed 1998 romantic crime comedy “Out of Sight” stars George Clooney as a bank robber who kidnaps and falls in love with a U.S. Marshall (Jennifer Lopez). In her Rotten Tomatoes interview, Prince-Bythewood praised the chemistry between the film’s two lead actors.
“The chemistry between Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney was insane. Anytime that movie comes on cable, I can’t not watch it and it’s really because of their chemistry,” Prince-Bythewood said.
-
“Goodfellas” (1990)
Image Credit: ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection One of the most acclaimed films of Martin Scorsese’s career, “Goodfellas” is a classic gangster epic focusing on the rise and fall of mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) over the course of 25 years. In her Rotten Tomatoes interview, Prince-Bythewood said the film was “almost perfect” and taught her about how to work as a director.
“I loved that film. It tells me so much as a director. I studied it so much in terms of the camera and how you use the camera to tell the story,” Prince-Bythewood said. “What Scorsese was able to do with the camera to tell the story and speak to characters and give every character an entrance. It’s another film that’s almost perfect.”
-
“Central Station” (1998)
Image Credit: ©Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection The final film Prince-Bythewood discussed in her Rotten Tomatoes interview, “Central Station” was directed by Walter Salles and focuses on a bitter older woman (Fernanda Montenegro) who reluctantly takes in a young boy (Vinícius de Oliveira) whose mother was killed in a car accident and goes on a road trip to find his missing mother.
“I don’t like to cry in movies — I don’t think anybody does — just because it’s embarrassing, but I was sobbing in that film. It was such a beautiful story. It was this little film that spoke volumes and emotions were just so real and it just moved me,” Prince-Bythewood said.
-
“Black Orpheus” (1959)
Image Credit: Courtesy Everett Collection In 2022, to promote “The Woman King,” Prince-Bythewood made a Criterion Closet video for the Criterion Collection, discussing some of her favorite films. One of the movies she selected was Marcel Camus’ “Black Orpheus.” A retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, “Black Orpheus” sets the story during Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival and stars a cast of mostly Black actors.
“It was really one of the few, it may have been the only Black love story that I had seen,” Prince-Bythewood. “And it really spurred me to make more. So I come back to this movie, actually a lot.”
-
“In the Mood For Love” (2000)
Image Credit: ©Miramax/Courtesy Everett Collection One of the most acclaimed films of the 21st century, “In the Mood for Love” from Wong Kar-wai stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung as two neighbors who discover their respective spouses are having an affair, only to fall in love themselves. Prince-Bythewood selected the movie as one of her Criterion Closet picks.
“So beautifully shot, so heartbreaking. I love this type of story, that gives you that ache,” Prince-Bythewood said.
-
“A Dry White Season” (1989)
Image Credit: ©MGM/Courtesy Everett Collection During her Criterion Closet video, Prince-Bythewood also selected Euzhan Palcy’s “A Dry White Season.” Released in 1989, the drama film focuses on a white South African schoolteacher (Donald Sutherland) in the Apartheid era who agrees to help his gardener (Winston Ntshona) try a corrupt politician (Jürgen Prochnow) for the death of his son. In her video, Prince-Bythewood named Palcy as one of three filmmakers she looked up to while developing as a director, along with Kathryn Bigelow and Kasi Lemmons.
-
“Devil in a Blue Dress” (1995)
Image Credit: ©TriStar Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection Carl Franklin’s “Devil in a Blue Dress” is a neo-noir starring Denzel Washington as an unemployed World War II veteran who gets hired by a private eye to search for a missing white woman in 1948 Los Angeles. Prince-Bythewood selected the film in her Criterion Closet video.
“It was so smart, so well shot,” Prince-Bythewood said. “Carl Franklin killed this.”
-
“Claudine” (1974)
Image Credit: ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection John Benry’s “Claudine” stars Diahann Carrol as a single mother in Harlem working as a maid to support her family, who falls for a garbage collector (James Earl Jones). In her Criterion Closet video, Prince-Bythewood said that the film “changed” her.
“Where I grew up it was very difficult because there was no one like me and certainly when you watch TV and film as a Black woman you’re not seeing yourself reflected,” Prince-Bythewood said. “So much of what I do as a filmmaker is put Black women on screen so we can see ourselves. And this was one of those movies where seeing Diahann Carroll changed me. I’ve never forgotten this movie.”
