28 Best Black Romance Movies Black Romance Films Streaming Now
Love & Basketball
Gina Prince-Bythewood made a modern classic with Love & Basketball, the 2000 film starring Sanaa Lathan and Omar Epps as next door neighbors who bond over their love of basketball, but come apart under the pressures of their ambitions.
2Rye Lane
The romantic-comedy Rye Lane follows the relationship that develops over the course of a day between two strangers, Dom (Davis Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah), who have each recently been through breakups. The film is about their love story, but also itself is a love story to its South London setting.
3Loving
Loving tells the true story of Mildred and Richard Loving, a couple who were sentenced to prison for their interracial marriage. But, they appealed their case and it eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, where the 1967 decision of Loving v. Virginia invalidated state laws that prohibited interracial marriages. The film stars Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton.
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4Lovers Rock
Lovers Rock was released as part of director Steve McQueen's five-film anthology Small Axe, which tells different stories about Caribbean immigrants in London. Lovers Rock is set in the 1980s and is about two young adults (Micheal Ward, Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn) who fall for each other at a house party.
5Waiting to Exhale
Waiting to Exhale has a focus on friendship, but the romance is definitely still there too, as four friends try to find the partner who is right for them — while figuring out the relationships that are wrong for them first. Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Lela Rochon, and Loretta Devine star.
6She's Gotta Have It
Spike Lee's debut feature film She's Gotta Have It is the story of Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns), her journey to learn about herself, and her relationships with three very different men (Lee, Tommy Redmond Hicks, and John Canada Terrell). But, the ending isn't one of a typical romance.
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7The Sun Is Also a Star
Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton star in The Sun Is Also a Star about two teenagers who fall in love after a chance meeting in New York City. Natasha (Shahidi) is Jamaican and her family is facing deportation; Daniel (Melton) is Korean-American and has a strained relationship with his family. The film shows the two falling in love while also exploring their different backgrounds.
8Really Love
Kofi Siriboe stars in this romantic drama about Isaiah, a painter who unexpectedly starts a relationship with Stevie (Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing). But what happens when his ambition threatens his relationship?
9The Photograph
The Photograph is part star-crossed lovers, part self-discovery drama, starring Issa Rae and LaKeith Stanfield. The film follows two parallel love stories one generation apart, and explores how one mother's romantic choices can shape her daughter's.
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10Malcolm & Marie
Zendaya and John David Washington filmed Malcolm & Marie in the throes of the pandemic with very few people on set, creating an intimate portrait of one couple's argument.
11Queen & Slim
Queen & Slim is a modern-day Romeo & Juliet, but with more death. Centering Black characters, Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), the movie follows two strangers whose Tinder date takes a turn after an encounter with the police, leaving them to run for their lives together.
12Just Wright
Queen Latifah stars in this rom-com about a physical therapist, Leslie (Latifah), who falls for basketball player Scott McKnight (Common) while helping him recover after an injury. The only problem? His on-and-off relationship with her best friend, Morgan (Paula Patton).
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13Brown Sugar
A millennial favorite, Brown Sugar tells the charming story of lifelong best friends, Sid (Sanaa Lathan) and Dre (Taye Diggs), who bond over their love of hip hop and might just be perfect for each other — they just haven't realized it yet.
14Moonlight
Moonlight depicts the heartbreaking, yet hopeful journey of Chiron, focusing on three critical time periods in his life — first as a child (Alex R. Hibbert) growing up with a single mother (Naomie Harris), then as an angry teenager experiencing his first love and facing his sexuality (Ashton Sanders), and finally as a young adult (Trevonte Rhodes).
15Resort to Love
When Erica (Christina Milian) takes a gig as a singer at a luxury hotel in paradise for a fresh start, the last thing she expects is to see her ex-fiancé (Jay Pharoah)... with his new fiancée (Christiani Pitts) preparing for their destination wedding. Add in an attractive and charming brother (Sinqua Walls), and you've got yourself a classic rom-com scenario.
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16Poetic Justice
After making his directorial debut with the Oscar-nominated Boyz n the Hood, writer-director John Singleton released Poetic Justice, a romantic drama about Justice (Janet Jackson), a poet and hairdresser who finds herself on a roadtrip from LA to Oakland with Lucky (Tupac Shakur), a postal worker she can't stand — until she can.
17Sylvie's Love
A love story for the ages, Sylvie's Love follows the on-and-off relationship of Sylvie (Tessa Thompson) and Robert (Nnamdi Asomugha), who must overcome misunderstandings and career ambitions to find their way back to each other in 1960's New York.
18Love Jones
Darius (Larenz Tate) and Nina (Nia Long) feel an immediate connection when they meet at a poetry reading, but attraction isn't always enough to sustain a relationship, especially when two people don't quite know what they want.
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19If Beale Street Could Talk
Based on James Baldwin's novel of the same name, If Beale Street Could Talk is an achingly beautiful film about love from director Barry Jenkins. The film follows the powerful love affair between Tish (KiKi Layne) and Fonny (Stephan James), whose brief but intense love affair is interrupted when Fonny is arrested.
20Premature
17-year-old Ayanna (Zora Howard) spends the summer before college falling in love with independent music producer Isaiah (Joshua Boone). But as their love intensifies, Ayanna must face whether or not she's really ready for an adult relationship.
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