PHOTOS

: Lee Daniels: Director Lee Daniels, could be the first African American to take home the <a href="http://www.oscars.org/ " target="_blank">Academy Award</a> for best director this weekend. His award-winning film <a href="http://www.weareallprecious.com/ " target="_blank">Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire</a>, about a physically, emotionally, and sexually abused, HIV-positive, 350 lb black teenager, elicited tears and feelings of outrage from audiences who saw the movie. Precious has been nominated for 60 different awards and won 53 of them. Despite its worldwide acclaim, the movie has only made $47.2 million at the box office. Now he is concentrating on production for the movie, Selma, about mid-century civil rights marches. (Image source: Lions Gate Entertainment)

: Lee Daniels on genres that sell: “I think Precious has laid the foundation for other African American filmmakers to come in and do their thing," said Daniels recently. "But I think that safe is always better from a studio perspective and safe equals comedy and safe equals action in regards to our people.” (Image source: Renaud Corlouer)

: Antoine Fuqua Antoine Fuqua is one of the few black directors who have been able to make a movie that wins awards and brings home the bacon. His movie <a href="http://www.brooklynsfinestthemovie.com/main/ " target="_blank">Brooklyn’s Finest </a>opens this weekend, and based on reviews, he may have again hit a home run. In 2001, Training Day brought in $77 million at the box office and earned Denzel Washington a best actor Oscar. Fuqua is in preproduction for the true life story of the Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar. He is also attached to direct the spy thriller Consent to Kill for CBS Films. (Image source: Overture Films)

: Fuqua on box office double standards: “There are a lot of different challenges [for black filmmakers]. Some are the same challenges that every director has. But for us, if you have a failure or two, walking into the room [with studio executives] you already have one foot being pushed back out," said Fuqua (shown above directing Richard Gere in a scene from Brooklyn's Finest). "That is just something you’re going to have to deal with." (Image source: Overture Films)

: Gina Prince Bythewood Gina Prince Bythewood is one of the few women in the director’s chair. Her last movie, <a href="http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thesecretlifeofbees/ " target="_blank">The Secret Life of Bees</a> made $38 million at the box office in 2008. Bythewood bounced into the game with her first feature film Love and Basketball through Fox Searchlight in 2000. She is currently writing a screenplay. (Image source: Fox Searchlight Films)

: Gina Prince Bythewood on Bootlegging: “Audiences need to stop bootlegging and come out and see the films," she says. "The more money a black film makes the more studios are going to be open to making them.” (Image source: Creative Artists Agency)

: Spike Lee After Gordon Parks,<a href="http://www.40acres.com/" target="_blank"> Spike Lee </a>might be considered the face of contemporary black filmmaking. Lee shot to fame after directing and starring in Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever in the 1980s and 1990s. His 2006 film Inside Man earned $88.5 million at the box office domestically. Despite his success, he still has the same problems raising financing for films. Lee is waiting on Universal Pictures to give him the greenlight to make Inside Man 2, according to IGN movies. (Image Source: Universal Pictures)

: Spike Lee on integrity in filmmaking: At the <a href="http://www.34thstreetfilms.com/" target="_blank">2009 Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference</a> in Detroit, Michigan, Lee expressed his dismay at directors who make movies that are “coonery and buffoonery” even though they make a lot of money.

: Tyler Perry <a href="http://www.tylerperrystudios.com/ " target="_blank">Tyler Perry</a> is considered the ultimate example of filmmaking success in that his movies make money and feature black storylines. Since he owns his own film studio and production company, he gets to pocket all revenue after distribution costs. He is known most for playing the character Madea, an aging black woman. Perry’s most-recent film starring Madea — Madea Goes to Jail – made $90.4 million at the box office in 2009. His new movie (see above image) <a href="http://www.whydidigetmarriedtoomovie.com/" target="_blank">Why Did I Get Married Too?</a>, starring Janet Jackson, will be released April 2. (Image source: Lions Gate Entertainment)

: Perry is often criticized by Spike Lee as not meeting the standards of respectable filmmaking. This year he is also working on an adaptation of the book For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf to be released January 2011. (Image Source: Tyler Perry's Facebook fan page)

: Tim Story As director of the Fantastic Four franchise, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1103162/" target="_blank">Tim Story</a> is the king of the box office compared to other black filmmakers. Story, is one of few black directors chosen by a major movie studio to direct a film that is expected to be a mainstream, blockbuster hit. Fantastic Four made $155 million in domestic box office sales and $329 million worldwide in 2005. The Silver Surfer sequel made $132 million domestically and $277 worldwide in 2007. (Image source: 20th Century Fox)

: Story’s breakout hit Barbershop starring Ice Cube made $76 million in 2002 and was considered a huge crossover success for a movie that featured black leading talent and a distinctly black storyline. His newest movie, Hurricane Season, released in February of this year, went straight to DVD due to financial problems with the production company. (Image source: IMBD)

Posted: March 6, 2010

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