Awards: Academy Award, Best Adapted Screenplay; Film Independent Spirit Award, Best Lead Performance; BAFTA Award, Best Adapted Screenplay; NAACP Image Award, Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture

Darkly funny, American Fiction is an outstandingly original satire that takes a butcher knife to the publishing industry’s expectations of Black storytelling. Jeffery Wright stars as Thelonius “Monk” Ellison, a discontented novelist and professor fighting to find a place in the literary world while battling racist expectations of his own work. In a sudden moment of exasperation, Monk decides to write a deliberately stereotypical novel, only to be shocked when it becomes a runaway success. Suddenly, the mild-mannered academic is living a double life as an ex-convict on the run. Tracee Ellis Ross, Sterling K. Brown, and Issa Rae round out the cast. Written and directed by Cord Jefferson, this brilliant film picked up an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2023. (Written by Sam Mallon ’26)