For his first film outing, John Singleton chose to drop his viewers smack dab into the Crenshaw ghetto of South Central Los Angeles. The movie was Boyz n the Hood (released in 1991), and it would earn him two Oscar nominations. One nom was for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. The other was for Best Director, making Singleton the very first Black director to earn this nomination. To date, a Black artist has yet to win this award.
