LOS ANGELES, CA (November 20, 2017) – The nominees for the 49th NAACP Image Awards were announced today with Netflix and OWN leading the nominations in the television categories with 23 nominations and 17 nominations, respectively. In the recording category, RCA Records leads with 12 nominations, followed by Capitol Records with 6 nominations and Atlantic Records and Columbia Records both with 3 nominations. Universal Pictures leads with 10 nominations, followed by Annapurna and Open Road Films, both received 5 nominations in the motion picture categories. The Two-Hour LIVE TV special will air on TV One on Monday, January 15, 2018, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday with a One-Hour Live Red Carpet Pre-Show.
“The NAACP Image Awards is the ultimate platform for artists and individuals of color who advocate for social justice to share their voices with millions, and to be recognized and celebrated,” stated Derrick Johnson, President and CEO, NAACP. “At a moment where there seems to be one tragic event after another in America, the NAACP Image Awards continues to be a beacon of light to the diversity reflected in television, music, film and literature that brings everyone together.”
The 49th NAACP Image Awards production team will be returning including Executive Producers Reginald Hudlin and Phil Gurin, Tony McCuin as Director, Byron Phillips as Producer, and Robin Reinhardt as Talent Producer.
NAACP members vote on the NAACP Image Awards winners from nominees in television, music, literature, and film. To become a member of the leading civil rights organization in the nation and immediately cast your vote go to www.naacp.org.
Following is the complete list of categories and nominees for the 49th NAACP Image Awards:
ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Ava DuVernay
Bruno Mars
Chadwick Boseman
Chance the Rapper
Issa Rae
JAY-Z
TELEVISION
Outstanding Comedy Series
“Ballers” (HBO)
“black-ish” (ABC)
“Dear White People” (Netflix)
“Insecure” (HBO)
“Survivor’s Remorse” (Starz)
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
Anthony Anderson – “black-ish” (ABC)
Aziz Ansari – “Master of None” (Netflix)
Dwayne Johnson – “Ballers” (HBO)
Keegan-Michael Key – “Friends from College” (Netflix)
RonReaco Lee – “Survivor’s Remorse” (Starz)
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Danielle Brooks – “Orange is the New Black” (Netflix)
“In It To Win It” – Charlie Wilson (RCA Records/P Music Group)
“Strength of A Woman” – Mary J. Blige (Capitol Records)
LITERATURE
Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction
“Little Fires Everywhere” – Celeste Ng (Penguin Random House)
“No One Is Coming to Save Us” – Stephanie Powell Watts (HarperCollins Publishers)
“Sing, Unburied, Sing” – Jesmyn Ward (Simon and Schuster)
“The Annotated African American Folktales” – Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Author), Maria Tatar (Author) (Liveright Publishing Corporation)
“The Wide Circumference of Love” – Marita Golden (Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.)
Outstanding Literary Work – Non-Fiction
“Black Detroit – A People’s History of Self-Determination” – Herb Boyd (HarperCollins Publishers)
“Chokehold: Policing Black Men” – Paul Butler (The New Press)
“Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies” – Dick Gregory (HarperCollins Publishers)
“The President’s Kitchen Cabinet: The Story of the African Americans Who Have Fed Our First Families, from the Washingtons to the Obamas” – Adrian Miller (University of North Carolina Press)
“We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy” – Ta-Nehisi Coates (Random House)
Outstanding Literary Work – Debut Author
“A Beautiful Ghetto” – Devin Allen (Haymarket Books)
“Chasing Spaces: An Astronaut’s Story of Grit, Grace & Second Chances” – Leland Melvin (HarperCollins Publishers)
“No One Is Coming to Save Us” – Stephanie Powell Watts (HarperCollins Publishers)
“Rabbit: The Autobiography of Ms. Pat” – Patricia Williams (Author) Jeannine Amber (With) (HarperCollins Publishers)
“We’re Going to Need More Wine” – Gabrielle Union (HarperCollins Publishers)
Outstanding Literary Work – Biography / Auto Biography
“Ali: A Life” – Jonathan Eig (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
“Becoming Ms. Burton – From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women” – Susan Burton (Author), Cari Lynn (Author), Michelle Alexander (Foreword By) (The New Press)
“Chester B. Himes” – Lawrence P. Jackson (W. W. Norton & Company)
“Obama: The Call of History” – Peter Baker (New York Times/Callaway)
“We’re Going to Need More Wine” – Gabrielle Union (HarperCollins Publishers)
Outstanding Literary Work – Instructional
“Ballerina Body: Dancing and Eating Your Way to a Leaner, Stronger, and More Graceful You” – Misty Copeland (Grand Central Publishing)
“Exponential Living – Stop Spending 100% of Your Time on 10% of Who You Are” – Sheri Riley (Author), Usher (Foreword By) (Penguin Random House)
“Notoriously Dapper – How to Be A Modern Gentleman with Manners, Style and Body Confidence” – Kelvin Davis (Mango Media Inc.)
“The Awakened Woman: Remembering & Reigniting Our Sacred Dreams” – Dr. Tererai Trent (Author), Oprah Winfrey (Foreword By) (Simon and Schuster)
Outstanding Literary Work – Poetry
“Incendiary Art: Poems” – Patricia Smith (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press)
“My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter” – Aja Monet (Haymarket Books)
“Silencer” – Marcus Wicker (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
“The Drowning Boy’s Guide to Water” – Cameron Barnett (Autumn House Press)
“Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems” – Ntozake Shange (Simon and Schuster)
Outstanding Literary Work – Children
“Becoming Kareem: Growing Up On and Off the Court” – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Author), Raymond Obstfeld (With) (Hachette Book Group)
“Before She Was Harriet” – Lesa Cline-Ransome (Author), James E. Ransome (Illustrator) (Holiday House)
“Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History” – Vashti Harrison (Hachette Book Group)
“Take a Picture of Me, James VanDerZee!” – Andrea J. Loney (Author), Keith Mallett (Illustrator) (Lee & Low Books)
“The Youngest Marcher: The Story of Audrey Faye Hendricks, A Young Civil Rights Activist” – Cynthia Levinson (Author), Vanessa Brantley-Newton (Illustrator) (S&S Children’s Publishing)
Outstanding Literary Work – Youth / Teens
“Allegedly” – Tiffany D. Jackson (HarperCollins Publishers)
Loretta Devine – “Doc McStuffins” (Disney Channel)
Tiffany Haddish – “Legends of Chamberlain Heights” (Comedy Central)
Yvette Nicole Brown – “Elena of Avalor” (Disney Junior)One-Hour Live Red Carpet Pre-Show and Two-Hour Live TV Special to air on TV ONE Monday, January 15, 2018 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday