What a year we had on the big screen in 2013. As a mark up to our annual Black Women in Hollywood pre-Oscars event, we're taking a look at a banner year for Black women in film—from Lupita Nyong'o's breathtaking performance in 12 Years a Slave to scene-stealers Octavia Butler and Oprah Winfrey in Fruitvale Station and Lee Daniels The Butler.
Alfre Woodard portrayed Mistress Shaw, a formerly enslaved woman who married a white slave master in the Oscar-nominated film, 12 Years a Slave.
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Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey and Forest Whitaker star in “The Butler”
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Octavia Spencer
Spencer portrayed Oscar Grant’s (played by Michael B. Jordan) mother in the critically-acclaimed film, Fruitvale Station.
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Lupita Nyong’o
Nyong’o is certainly number one on everyone’s list of breakout stars of 2013 thanks to her outstanding performance as Patsey in the film 12 Years a Slave.
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Nicole Beharie
The Sleepy Hollow star played Jackie Robinson’s wife Rachel Robinson in the biopic, 42 which hit a home run at the box office in early 2013.
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Viola Davis
In Prisoners, Davis and her husband (played by Terrence Howard) take the law into their own hands when their daughter and her best friend are abducted.
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Naomie Harris
Harris portrayed Winnie Mandela in the Nelson Mandela biopic, Long Walk to Freedom.
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Danai Gurira
The Walking Dead actress starred in the indie film Mother of George, portraying a newlywed Nigerian woman who goes to great lengths to become pregnant.
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Kerry Washington
The Scandal actress starred alongside Kali Hawk and Kimrie Lewis-Davis in African-American filmmaker Tina Gordon Chism’s film, Peeples.
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Angela Bassett and Jennifer Hudson
Bassett and Hudson played mother and daughter in the holiday film, Black Nativity where Bassett made her singing debut. Hudson also starred in Winnie Mandela.
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The Cast of ‘The Best Man Holiday’
Regina Hall, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, Melissa De Sousa and Monica Calhoun reunited for The Best Man Holiday.
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Adepero Oduye
Oduye played Eliza, a free woman kidnapped into slavery like Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
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Jill Scott and Paula Patton
When she needed a relationship reality check, Montana Moore (Paula Patton) turned to her work BFF’s Gail Best (Jill Scott) and Sam (Adam Brody) in the David E. Talbert romocom, Baggage Claim.
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Yaya Alafia
Alafia played student activist Carol Hammie in Lee Daniels’ The Butler.