The nominations for the 47th annual NAACP Image Awards were announced on Tuesday, with Ryan Coogler's Rocky spinoff Creed scoring six mentions, the most among motion pictures. Star Michael B. Jordan is also up for entertainer of the year, nominated alongside Misty Copeland, Pharrell Williams, Shonda Rhimes and Viola Davis.
Universal's Straight Outta Compton earned five noms, with Netflix's first original feature film, Beasts of No Nation, landing four, as did Amazon's first feature film, Spike Lee's Chi-Raq, which is being distributed by Roadside Attractions. Creed, Compton and Beasts will all face off in the category of outstanding motion picture, alongside Sony's Concussion and Open Road's Dope. Concussion scored three mentions, including one for best actor (Will Smith) and best supporting actress (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Concussion's recognition marks the first major award nominations for the film about Dr. Bennet Omalu's discovery of a head-trauma disease and his struggle to get the NFL to acknowledge his findings.
In the best actor category, Smith, Jordan and Beasts' young star Abraham Attah will compete against Chiwetel Ejiofor (Secret in Their Eyes) and Michael Ealy (The Perfect Guy). The best movie actress nominees include Keke Palmer (Brotherly Love), Sanaa Lathan (Perfect Guy), Teyonah Parris (Chi-Raq), Viola Davis (Lila and Eve) and Zoe Saldana (Infinitely Polar Bear).
On the TV side, Fox drama Empire scored a leading 12 nominations, the most for any TV series, followed by ABC comedy Black-ish with 10. ABC led all networks with a total of 28 noms, including five each for How to Get Away With Murder and American Crime and four for Scandal. BET, meanwhile, received 13 mentions, including four each for Being Mary Jane and Book of Negroes.
HBO's Bessie earned five nominations, while Netflix's TV series also collected several noms, with Orange Is the New Black picking up four mentions and Aziz Ansari's Master of None scoring two for the show that recently debuted on the streaming service. NBC's recently aired live musical, The Wiz Live!, landed two noms, as did Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Trevor Noah and The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore.
Nominations were announced in the categories of motion pictures, TV, recording and literature. The NAACP Image Awards celebrates the accomplishments of people of color in TV, music, literature and film and honors individuals and groups that promote social justice through creative endeavors. The awards will be handed out on Friday, Feb. 5, during a two-hour ceremony that will be broadcast live on TV One at 9 p.m. ET (PT tape-delayed).
