African American Film Critics Vote ‘Nickel Boys’ Its Best Picture Of 2024

The African American Film Critics Association on Friday said that it has selected Orion Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios’ Nickel Boys as its Best Picture of 2024 to lead the 16th annual AAFCA Awards. Its writer-director RaMell Ross also won Best Director for his work adapting Colson Whitehead’s novel.

Nickel Boys, which hits theaters today after a fall festival run that started at Telluride, was one of three films to score multiple wins from the critics group today. A24’s Sing Sing won a leading three awards with Best Actor for Colman Domingo, Best Supporting Actor for Clarence Maclin and Best Screenplay. Domingo and Maclin repeated the wins they received at the Gotham Awards.

DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot (Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score for Kris Bowers) and Netflix’s The Piano Lesson (Best Supporting Actress for Danielle Deadwyler and Best Ensemble) had double wins.

Other winners on today’s AAFCA list include Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who won the Best Actress prize for Bleecker Street’s Hard Truths; Netflix’s Emilia Pérez for Best International Film; while Netflix’s Daughters and Mubi’s Dahomey tied for the Best Documentary award.

Winners will be celebrated during the AAFCA Awards ceremony February 19 at the Beverly Wilshire. Before that, the critics group is hosting its annual AAFCA Honors ceremony February 2 at the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

“This has been a defining year for cinema, with an impressive array of stories that capture the complexity, resilience, and beauty of the human experience,” AAFCA president and co-founder Gil Robertson said. “We are proud to honor this year’s filmmakers and talent, whose work continues to expand the scope of humanity on screen. These films do more than entertain — they amplify voices and perspectives that deserve to be heard, and we look forward to celebrating their lasting impact.”

Here’s the full winners list, along with the AAFCA’s Top 10 Films chart:

Best Picture
Nickel Boys

Best Actor
Colman Domingo (Sing Sing)

Best Supporting Actress
Danielle Deadwyler (The Piano Lesson)

Best Ensemble
The Piano Lesson

Best Original Score
The Wild Robot (Kris Bowers)

Best Original Song
Bricks, Exhibiting Forgiveness (Andra Day, Cassandra Batie & Jherek Bischoff)

Best Animated Feature
The Wild Robot

Best International Film
Emilia Pérez

Best Independent Feature
She Taught Love

TOP 10 FILMS OF THE YEAR

1. Nickel Boys
2. Sing Sing
3. The Piano Lesson
4. Gladiator II
5. Wicked
6. Emilia Pérez
7. Albany Road
8. The Fire Inside
9. Exhibiting Forgiveness
10. Dahomey