Regina King — One Night in Miami

Regina King’s One Night in Miami earned a 98% Rotten Tomatoes score and three Oscar nominations, making it the most critically acclaimed directorial debut for a Best Supporting Actress winner since 2018. Her fictional meeting of Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown cost just $10 million to produce—45% cheaper than the typical historical drama from a first-time director. King was only the second Black woman to direct a live-action feature selected for the Venice Film Festival, a feat that echoes the trail she blazed as an actress. While #9 Angelina Jolie focuses on war epics, King’s intimate chamber piece proves that commanding four towering figures without a single battle scene demands even sharper directorial precision.