Barry Jenkins

Directing

Barry Jenkins

Born

1979-11-19 (46)

Place of birth

Miami, Florida, USA

Known for

Directing

Credits

47 titles

Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American filmmaker. After making his filmmaking debut with the short film My Josephine (2003), he directed his first feature film, Medicine for Melancholy (2008), for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature. He is also a creative collaborator and a member of The Chopstars collective. Following an eight-year hiatus from feature filmmaking, Jenkins directed and co-wrote the LGBTQ-themed independent drama Moonlight (2016), which won numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. Jenkins received an Oscar nomination for Best Director and jointly won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenpl…

Known for

The Daily Show poster
6.4

The World's Fakest News Team tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and pop culture.

The Daily Show

1996

Mufasa: The Lion King poster
7.3

Mufasa, a cub lost and alone, meets a sympathetic lion named Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of a group of misfits searching for their destiny.

Mufasa: The Lion King

2024

Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter poster
6.2

Some of this year's most talked about talent open up about the challenges and triumphs of creating critically acclaimed series and performances.

Close Up with The Hollywood Reporter

2015

The Fire Inside poster
7.3

Claressa Shields, a high school junior from Flint, Michigan, aided by her tough-love coach, Jason Crutchfield, pushes past all limitations to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing. But even at the pinnacle of success, Claressa has to reckon with the fact that not all dreams are created equal, and the real fight has only just begun.

The Fire Inside

2024

Moonlight poster
7.4

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

Moonlight

2016

Sorry, Baby poster
6.9

Agnes feels stuck. Unlike her best friend, Lydie, who’s moved to New York and is now expecting a baby, Agnes still lives in the New England house they once shared as graduate students, now working as a professor at her alma mater. A ‘bad thing’ happened to Agnes a few years ago and, since then, despite her best efforts, life hasn’t gotten back on track.

Sorry, Baby

2025

Film credits

Series credits

Behind the camera

Mufasa: The Lion King poster
7.3

Mufasa, a cub lost and alone, meets a sympathetic lion named Taka, the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of a group of misfits searching for their destiny.

Mufasa: The Lion King

2024

The Fire Inside poster
7.3

Claressa Shields, a high school junior from Flint, Michigan, aided by her tough-love coach, Jason Crutchfield, pushes past all limitations to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing. But even at the pinnacle of success, Claressa has to reckon with the fact that not all dreams are created equal, and the real fight has only just begun.

The Fire Inside

2024

The Fire Inside poster
7.3

Claressa Shields, a high school junior from Flint, Michigan, aided by her tough-love coach, Jason Crutchfield, pushes past all limitations to become the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing. But even at the pinnacle of success, Claressa has to reckon with the fact that not all dreams are created equal, and the real fight has only just begun.

The Fire Inside

2024

Moonlight poster
7.4

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

Moonlight

2016

Moonlight poster
7.4

The tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality.

Moonlight

2016

Sorry, Baby poster
6.9

Agnes feels stuck. Unlike her best friend, Lydie, who’s moved to New York and is now expecting a baby, Agnes still lives in the New England house they once shared as graduate students, now working as a professor at her alma mater. A ‘bad thing’ happened to Agnes a few years ago and, since then, despite her best efforts, life hasn’t gotten back on track.

Sorry, Baby

2025

If Beale Street Could Talk poster
6.9

After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.

If Beale Street Could Talk

2018

If Beale Street Could Talk poster
6.9

After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.

If Beale Street Could Talk

2018

If Beale Street Could Talk poster
6.9

After her fiance is falsely imprisoned, a pregnant African-American woman sets out to clear his name and prove his innocence.

If Beale Street Could Talk

2018

Aftersun poster
7.7

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories fill the gaps between camcorder footages as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the troubled man she didn't.

Aftersun

2022

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt poster
5.4

Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection — with loved ones and with place.

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

2023

Preparation for the Next Life poster
5.9

Aishe, a Uyghur woman trained by her military father, migrates to New York City where she finds herself laboring in Chinatown’s underground kitchens. She fatefully encounters Skinner, a young American soldier who has just returned from three tours in the Middle East. While falling in love, they discover the possibility of a better life together than the ones they believed they were destined to live alone.

Preparation for the Next Life

2025

Medicine for Melancholy poster
6.1

Waking from a one-night stand that neither remembers, Micah and Joanne find themselves wandering the streets of San Francisco, sharing coffee and conversation and searching for a deeper connection.

Medicine for Melancholy

2009

Medicine for Melancholy poster
6.1

Waking from a one-night stand that neither remembers, Micah and Joanne find themselves wandering the streets of San Francisco, sharing coffee and conversation and searching for a deeper connection.

Medicine for Melancholy

2009

Remigration poster
9.0

Upon returning to their countryside cabin one day, Kaya, his wife Helen, and their daughter Naomi are confronted by two suited men: representatives of the San Francisco Remigration Program. The men explain that San Francisco is now occupied entirely by the wealthy class. But stoplights still burn out and trains occasionally jump their rails. Blue-collar labor isn't obsolete, but it's scarce. The city has created a program to "remigrate" long-gone working class families from their inland homes back to the city that once pushed them out. Kaya, Helen, and Naomi return to San Francisco and join a handful of other potential remigrants for a tour of what can be expected in their new lives. But can they learn to trust their old home once again?

Remigration

2011

Remigration poster
9.0

Upon returning to their countryside cabin one day, Kaya, his wife Helen, and their daughter Naomi are confronted by two suited men: representatives of the San Francisco Remigration Program. The men explain that San Francisco is now occupied entirely by the wealthy class. But stoplights still burn out and trains occasionally jump their rails. Blue-collar labor isn't obsolete, but it's scarce. The city has created a program to "remigrate" long-gone working class families from their inland homes back to the city that once pushed them out. Kaya, Helen, and Naomi return to San Francisco and join a handful of other potential remigrants for a tour of what can be expected in their new lives. But can they learn to trust their old home once again?

Remigration

2011

Remigration poster
9.0

Upon returning to their countryside cabin one day, Kaya, his wife Helen, and their daughter Naomi are confronted by two suited men: representatives of the San Francisco Remigration Program. The men explain that San Francisco is now occupied entirely by the wealthy class. But stoplights still burn out and trains occasionally jump their rails. Blue-collar labor isn't obsolete, but it's scarce. The city has created a program to "remigrate" long-gone working class families from their inland homes back to the city that once pushed them out. Kaya, Helen, and Naomi return to San Francisco and join a handful of other potential remigrants for a tour of what can be expected in their new lives. But can they learn to trust their old home once again?

Remigration

2011

No artwork available
NR

A biopic about the life and career of Ronnie Spector, the lead singer of the Ronettes, an American girl group from Spanish Harlem, New York.

Be My Baby

—

The Gaze poster
3.0

In all my years of doing press, I've been repeatedly asked about the white gaze. Rarely have I been set upon about the Black gaze; or the gaze distilled. This is an answer to a question rarely asked.

The Gaze

2021

No artwork available
NR

A feature adaptation of the 2014 Oscar-nominated documentary VIRUNGA.

Untitled Barry Jenkins 'Virunga' Adaptation

—

My Josephine poster
6.6

Aadid tells us his life in seven minutes. He's an Arabic-speaking young man working the night shift at a laundromat and dry cleaners somewhere in the United States. In the aftermath of 9/11, they wash U.S. flags for free. He says they get six or seven per day. He tells us about Napoleon's two wives: Marie Louise for an heir, Josephine for love. Aadid likes Adela, his co-worker. She's his Josephine. We watch Aadid and Adela hand wash the flags and put them in dryers. They fold them. They dance. They stand side by side outside the door of the laundromat looking at the dawn. Will this companionship become something more?

My Josephine

2003

My Josephine poster
6.6

Aadid tells us his life in seven minutes. He's an Arabic-speaking young man working the night shift at a laundromat and dry cleaners somewhere in the United States. In the aftermath of 9/11, they wash U.S. flags for free. He says they get six or seven per day. He tells us about Napoleon's two wives: Marie Louise for an heir, Josephine for love. Aadid likes Adela, his co-worker. She's his Josephine. We watch Aadid and Adela hand wash the flags and put them in dryers. They fold them. They dance. They stand side by side outside the door of the laundromat looking at the dawn. Will this companionship become something more?

My Josephine

2003

Chlorophyl poster
4.0

The story of a young girl and her fleeting relationship with a scoundrel.

Chlorophyl

2011

Chlorophyl poster
4.0

The story of a young girl and her fleeting relationship with a scoundrel.

Chlorophyl

2011

Untitled Alvin Ailey Project poster
NR

The life story of acclaimed American choreographer Alvin Ailey.

Untitled Alvin Ailey Project

—

Another Young Couple poster
5.5

Another Young Couple — borne out of a camera test for If Beale Street Could Talk, James and I asked my friends Essence and Jihaari, newly transplanted to LA to allow us into their home for an afternoon tea about their lives and loves, apart and together. We were migrating to the Alexa 65 for Beale Street and wanted to see for ourselves how that large-format sensor would affect intimate portraiture within lived spaces… in particular the faces and spaces of Black folk.

Another Young Couple

2023

Tall Enough poster
6.1

Love knows no borders in this stylish snapshot of interracial coupledom. Two Brooklyn photographers (she, African-American; he, Chinese-American) meet and their romance blossoms and endures back home, amidst a poetical widescreen mix of images both seductive and sedate.

Tall Enough

2009

Tall Enough poster
6.1

Love knows no borders in this stylish snapshot of interracial coupledom. Two Brooklyn photographers (she, African-American; he, Chinese-American) meet and their romance blossoms and endures back home, amidst a poetical widescreen mix of images both seductive and sedate.

Tall Enough

2009

No artwork available
NR

An adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s first book.

The Intuitionist

—

No artwork available
NR

An adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s first book.

The Intuitionist

—

No artwork available
NR

Described as an elevated sci-fi thriller revolving around the pursuit of eternal life. Plot TBA.

The Natural Order

—

No artwork available
NR

Described as an elevated sci-fi thriller revolving around the pursuit of eternal life. Plot TBA.

The Natural Order

—

The High Five poster
6.0

On October 2nd, 1977 Dusty Baker hit his 30th homerun of the season. As Baker rounded the bases, an excited rookie named Glenn Burke met him at home plate, raised his arm high in the air and slapped Baker's hand. It was the first high five recorded in the history of sports. A year later, Burke was forced out of baseball amid rumours of his sexual orientation.

The High Five

2014

King's Gym poster
8.0

Oakland, California's "boxing gym of champions" is showcased here, its historic walls lined with posters for matches boasting past regulars from George Foreman and Joe Frazier to Gina Guidi. Though the crowded environ may be one of sweaty, noisy machismo, director Barry Jenkins' surprisingly lyrical miniature uses a delicate piano score and slow motion images to enter a contender's solitary headspace.

King's Gym

2013

One Shot poster
NR

Its single hand-held shot lends both immediacy of viewpoint and a floating unreality to a young woman's visit to a Seattle convenience store, seemingly fraught with menacing purpose.

One Shot

2009

A Young Couple poster
6.2

A couple discuss their relationship.

A Young Couple

2009

Little Brown Boy poster
5.9

A little brown boy gets caught up in a violent shooting and must come to terms with the incident and the part he has played.

Little Brown Boy

2003

Little Brown Boy poster
5.9

A little brown boy gets caught up in a violent shooting and must come to terms with the incident and the part he has played.

Little Brown Boy

2003