Predicting the 2023 NAACP Image Awards – Television Movie, Documentary, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special Awards

Logo Credit: NAACP Image Awards

These categories are always a catch-all across all film and television awards and so there’s just inherently a bit of comparing apples to oranges. Let’s take a whirl…

Outstanding Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special

  • Carl Weber’s The Black Hamptons
  • From Scratch Should: Best Man
  • The Best Man: The Final Chapters Will: Best Man
  • The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
  • Women of the Movement

Should Win: The Best Man: The Final Chapters
Will Win: The Best Man: The Final Chapter

Should Have Been Nominated: n/a

This is a terrific set of nominees, though I’d probably not have included The Black Hamptons. Its 4 episodes feel like the start of a longer season, rather than a true limited series. I’d be happy with any of the other four winning, but this is truly a toss-up between Women of the Movement and The Best Man: The Final Chapters. For me, I think the latter wins and deserves to win. It was frothy, funny, compelling, and glamorous. Hollywood has long underestimated Malcolm Lee’s unrivaled ability to tell really great stories about straight Black male friendships. He never misses.


Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special

  • Morris Chestnut – The Best Man: The Final Chapters
  • Samuel L. Jackson – The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey Should: Trevante
  • Terrence Howard – The Best Man: The Final Chapters Will: Sam
  • Trevante Rhodes – Mike
  • Wendell Pierce – Don’t Hang Up

Should Win: Trevante Rhodes
Will Win: Terrence Howard

Should Have Been Nominated: n/a

Again – fantastic nominees. All five of these men are gifted actors. I kinda want Morris to win as a corrective for not receiving a nomination for his career-best work in the second movie. But in this category it’s really about, for me, Trevante and Sam’s transformative character work. Sam hasn’t done anything this dope since The Red Violin and Eve’s Bayou and it was delightful to be reminded that he’s a character actor extraordinaire. That said, Trevante should win. He’s a revelation as Mike Tyson and that’s something I just keep saying with everything the brother is doing. In terms of who I think will win, I think its Terrance Howard for his consistently complex work as Quentin Spivey, The Best Man franchise’s breakout character.


Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special

  • Niecy Nash-Betts – Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
  • Regina Hall – The Best Man: The Final Chapters
  • Sanaa Lathan – The Best Man: The Final Chapters
  • Viola Davis – The First Lady
  • Zoe Saldaña – From Scratch

Should Win: Niecy Nash-Betts
Will Win: Niecy Nash-Betts

Should Have Been Nominated: n/a

This is a really good category, though the way they’ve decided who is Lead and Supporting among The Best Man: The Final Chapters ensemble is bizarre. Taye, Morris, and Nia are the lead actors and everyone else is supporting. That’s been the case ever since the first movie. But ultimately, Niecy Nash-Betts bodies all the other performances in this category. She’s been consistently brilliant in everything she’s done in ways at once subtle and magnetic. She will win and she should.


Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special

  • Glynn Turman – Women of the Movement
  • Keith David – From Scratch
  • Omar Benson Miller – The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
  • Russell Hornsby – Mike
  • Terrence “TC” Carson – A Wesley Christmas

Should Win: Omar Benson Miller
Will Win: Glynn Turman

Should Have Been Nominated: n/a

This category feels like a toss-up where any of these five gentlemen could win. That said, I think the one least likely to win – Omar Benson Miller – is the one who should win. His work in The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey was deceptively complex and really moving. I think living legend Glynn Turman will win, though I wouldn’t be surprised to see Russell Hornsby take this one.


Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Television Movie, Limited-Series or Dramatic Special

  • Alexis Floyd – Inventing Anna
  • Danielle Deadwyler – From Scratch
  • Melissa De Sousa – The Best Man: The Final Chapters
  • Nia Long – The Best Man: The Final Chapters
  • Phylicia Rashad – Little America

Should Win: Phylicia Rashad
Will Win: Nia Long

Should Have Been Nominated: n/a

Nia Long is in the Supporting Category for a limited series of a franchise that probably wouldn’t have ever been made had she not been in the cast. Nia is the female lead of this franchise and her nomination in this category is silly and wrong-headed. That said, I think she wins this because she’s Nia Long. She’s been nominated seven times for Image Awards, winning for this role in the original movie and twice for her work on Third Watch. She’s an icon, beloved by nearly every Black person in America, and she’s the kind of movie star talent that makes it all look so easy (guys – see her work in the Roxanne Shante biopic to truly understand her gift). That said, this award should go to the legend herself, Phylicia Rashad, for her understated, warm performance in the first episode of Little America‘s second season.


Outstanding Directing in a Television Movie or Special

  • Anton Cropper – Fantasy Football
  • Marta Cunningham – 61st Street
  • Sujata Day – Definition Please
  • Tailiah Breon – Kirk Franklin’s The Night Before Christmas
  • Tine Fields – Soul of a Nation: Screen Queens Rising

Should Win: not sure
Will Win: Tailiah Breon

Should Have Been Nominated: n/a

It is not clear to me why this category omits Limited Series when all the other categories include it. So I haven’t seen all of these so I have no real way to assess who should win, but I’m pretty sure Breon wins this category.


Outstanding Writing in a Television Movie or Special

  • Bree West – A Wesley Christmas
  • Ian Edelman, Maurice Williams – Entergalactic
  • Jerrod Carmichael – Jerrod Carmichael: Rothaniel
  • Lil Rel Howery – Lil Rel Howery: I said it. Y’all Thinking it
  • Matt Lopez – Father of the Bride

Should Win: Jerrod Carmichael
Will Win: Jerrod Carmichael

Should Have Been Nominated: n/a

A fine group of nominees, but this category belongs to Jerrod Carmichael (though I’m annoyed the show itself wasn’t nominated for Outstanding Variety Special). What he did with Rothaniel is astonishing. I’ve never really seen a special quite like it. It felt like he was making it up as he was going along, but upon repeated viewings you can see how extraordinarily well-crafted it is. It was my favorite artistic moment of 2022. He deserves this award.

Outstanding Directing in a Documentary (Television or Motion Picture)

  • Nadia Hallgren – Civil
  • Reginald Hudlin – Sidney
  • Sacha Jenkins – Everything’s Gonna Be All White
  • Sacha Jenkins – Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues
  • W. Kamau Bell – We Need to Talk About Cosby

Should Win: W. Kamau Bell
Will Win: Reginald Hudlin

Should Have Been Nominated: n/a

It can be easy to forget that these are awards given out by the oldest Black civil rights organization in the nation and that they are first and foremost concerned with a kind of respectability that can be incredibly limiting. I say that because W. Kamau Bell’s work on We Need to Talk About Cosby is the best of the five nominees here, largely because the entire focus is about complicating Cosby and our relationship to him. That means there’s an element of collective indictment that can often make institutions like NAACP nervous. So I don’t think it will win. I think Reggie wins for Sidney, a more straightforward documentary. I hope I’m wrong though. Bell deserves this one.

Other 2023 Image Awards Predictions:

About tlewisisdope

I write. I live in DC.
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