# Black Reel Award for Outstanding Independent Documentary

This article lists the winners and nominees for the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Independent Documentary. This award is given to the directors and was first awarded during the 2010 ceremony.

## Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in bold.

### 2010s

| Year | Film | Director | Ref |
| 2010 |
| 2010 | Without Bias | Kirk Fraser | |
| 2010 | Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness | Llewellyn M. Smith | |
| 2010 | Still Bill | Damani Baker and Alex Vlack | |
| 2011 | | | |
| 2011 | For the Best and for the Onion | Sani Elhadj Magori | |
| 2011 | Gefilte Fish | Shelly Kling | |
| 2011 | One of These Mornings | Valery Lyman | |
| 2012 | | | |
| 2012 | Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise and Fall of the Spook Who Sat By the Door | Christine Acham and Clifford Ward | |
| 2012 | Brown Babies | Regina Griffin | |
| 2012 | Burn: The Evolution of An American City | Harold Jackson III | |
| 2012 | Gang Girl: A Mother's Journey to Save Her Daughter | Valerie Goodloe | |
| 2012 | The Manuscripts of Timbuktu | Zola Maseko | |
| 2012 | Zero Percent | Tim Skousen | |
| 2013 | | | |
| 2013 | Soul Food Junkies | Byron Hurt | |
| 2013 | BMF: The Rise and Fall of Hip-Hop Drug Empire | Dan Sikorski | |
| 2013 | Contradictions of Fair Hope | S. Epatha Merkerson and Rockell Metcalf | |
| 2013 | From Fatherless to Fatherhood | Kobie Brown | |
| 2013 | Justice for Sale | Femeke and Isla van Velzen | |
| 2014 | | | |
| 2014 | The New Black | Yoruba Richen | |
| 2014 | Africa: The Beat | Javier Arias Bal, Polo Vallejo and Manuel Velasco | |
| 2014 | I Want My Name Back | Roger Paradiso | |
| 2014 | Lenny Cooke | Benny and Joshua Safdie | |
| 2014 | Unheard: Black Women in Civil Rights | Nev Nnaji | |
| 2015 | | | |
| 2015 | 25 to Life | Mike Brown | |
| 2015 | Evolution of a Criminal | Darius Clark Monroe | |
| 2015 | Oscar Micheaux: The Czar of Black Hollywood | Bayer Mack | |
| 2015 | Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People | Thomas Allen Harris | |
| 2016 | | | |
| 2016 | Mary Lou Williams: The Lady Who Swings the Band | Carol Bush | |
| 2016 | Adina Howard 20: A Story of Sexual Liberation | Gezus Zaire | |
| 2016 | Be Known | Dwayne Johnson-Cochran | |
| 2016 | Cody High: A Life Remodeled Project | Walter V. Marshall | |
| 2016 | Romeo is Bleeding | Jason Zeldes | |
| 2017 | — | — | — |
| 2018 |
| 2018 | Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities | Stanley Nelson Jr. | |
| 2018 | Back to Natural: A Documentary Film | Gillian Scott-Ward | |
| 2018 | Quest | Jonathan Olshefski | |
| 2018 | Yemanja: Wisdom From the African Heart of Brazil | Donna Roberts & Donna Reed | |
| 2018 | Zo! Making of Skybreak! | Donnie Seales Jr. | |
| 2019 | | | |
| 2019 | Sammy Davis Jr.: I've Gotta Be Me | Sam Pollard | |
| 2019 | Basquiat: Rage to Riches | David Schulman | |
| 2019 | Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart | Tracey Heather Strain | |

### 2020s

| Year | Film | Director |
| 2020 |
| 2020 | No Lye: An American Beauty Story | Bayer Mack |
| 2020 | 16 Bars | Sam Bathrick |
| 2020 | The Remix: Hip Hop x Fashion | Lisa Cortes & Farah X |
| 2021 | | |
| 2021 | Mr. Soul! | Melissa Haizlip |
| 2021 | The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show | Yoruba Richen |
| 2021 | With Drawn Arms | Glenn Kaino & Afshin Shahidi |
| 2022 | | |
| 2022 | 100 Years from Mississippi | Tarabu Betserai Kirkland |
| 2022 | Big Chief, Black Hawk | Jonathan Isaac Jackson |
| 2022 | I Still Breathe | Alfred George Bailey |
| 2022 | Little Satchmo | John Alexander |
| 2022 | Unzipped: An Autopsy of American Inequality | Colin K. Gray |

## Multiple nominations and wins
### Multiple nominations
#### 2 Nominations

* Bayer Mack
* Yoruba Richen