NICKEL BOYS received 2 nominations at the 2025 Academy Awards. The film was recognized for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (RaMell Ross & Joslyn Barnes). It did not win any Oscars.

NICKEL BOYS received one Golden Globe nomination in 2025. The film was recognized for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It did not win any Golden Globes.

Based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, NICKEL BOYS chronicles the powerful friendship between two young Black teenagers navigating the harrowing trials of reform school together. A film by RaMell Ross, starring Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Jimmie Fails, Luke Tennie, Craig Tate, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

Young Elwood Curtis (Ethan Cole Sharp) is raised by his grandmother Hattie in Tallahassee’s Frenchtown neighborhood after his parents Evelyn (Najah Bradley) and Percy (Sam Malone) abandon him at age six. Growing up, Elwood develops an idealistic sense of justice inspired by the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

One day, Elwood’s teacher, Mr. Hill (Jimmie Fails), stops by the restaurant where Hattie works to share some exciting news. He tells Elwood that Melvin Griggs Technical School, a college for Black students, has just opened up courses for high-achieving high schoolers. Seeing Elwood’s potential, Mr. Hill encourages him to apply.

As Elwood walks to campus after being accepted into a tuition-free accelerated study program, a Chevrolet Impala pulls up beside him. The driver (Taraja Ramsess) offers him a ride to school, and Elwood accepts, hopping into the car. Not long after, they’re pulled over by a police officer, who discovers the vehicle was stolen. The driver is arrested, and Elwood is convicted as an accomplice. Since he’s underage, he’s sent to the Nickel Academy, a reform school.

Elwood arrives at Nickel Academy with two white juveniles (Zachary Luke Van Zandt & Zach Primo). While they’re escorted to an estate-like building, Elwood is dropped off at shabby facilities in the back, where Black juveniles are housed separately and subjected to different treatment than their white counterparts.

In the classroom, Nickel Academy’s superintendent Spencer (Hamish Linklater) explains the four behavior ranks developed by former director Trevor Nickel. Every juvenile starts at the lowest rank, “Grub,” and must work their way up through “Explorer” and “Pioneer” to finally reach “Ace.” Only by achieving the highest rank can they graduate from the Academy and return home to their families.

While privileged white juveniles enjoy playing football in the field and receive attention from staff, the Academy makes little attempt to properly educate the Black juveniles. Despite most being teenagers of college age, they’re only taught elementary mathematics and basic subjects.

Elwood forms a friendship with Jack Turner (Brandon Wilson), a teenage juvenile who’s amused by how Elwood eats oatmeal as if it’s actually delicious. Elwood grows to appreciate Turner after he steps in when Griff (Luke Tennie) and other boys mock his Frenchtown, Tallahassee origins.

The following scene marks a pivotal shift in the film’s narrative as it replays the exact moment we witnessed earlier, but this time through Turner’s eyes. This perspective switch suggests a special bond forming between the two boys, creating a unique connection that transcends their difficult circumstances.

Turner rides with Harper (Fred Hechinger), a friendly staff member at Nickel Academy who oversees the “Community Service” program. Harper frequently takes Turner off campus to run errands and sell government-supplied food and supplies for his own personal profit.

Elwood is brought to Nickel Academy’s “White House” for punishment after stepping in to defend a boy being bullied in the restroom. The White House, a repurposed utility shed, serves as the site for brutal beatings where boys are taken in the middle of the night to be punished with a leather switch, often resulting in severe physical injuries and lasting psychological trauma.

Elwood’s grandmother Hattie (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) travels to the Nickel Academy to visit him, but she’s turned away. The staff claims Elwood is sick and can’t have visitors, hiding the truth that he’s actually in the infirmary recovering from a beating. Unsure of what to do next, Hattie wanders the area and happens to run into Turner. She asks him to deliver an envelope to Elwood on her behalf.

In the next scene, the film shifts its focus back to Elwood, who is lying in the infirmary. Turner is also there, pretending to be sick by eating soap powder. The perspective switches back and forth between Turner and Elwood. At first, I thought Turner was going to give Elwood the envelope from Hattie, as he had promised her. However, he never hands it over or even mentions meeting Elwood’s grandmother. Instead, Turner tells Elwood to pay attention to how people act around here and figure out how to navigate around them like an obstacle course if he wants to make it out alive. Turner reveals that there’s a dark side to the Nickel Academy, one that’s not mentioned in the book. He mentions a secret, unofficial graveyard where many boys, who suffered abuse and died at the Academy, were buried anonymously.

Later, Turner vouches for Elwood, prompting Harper to reassign him to work alongside Turner. What Harper and Turner don’t know is that Elwood is secretly documenting everything in his little notebook — community service, deliveries, payoffs, yardwork, chores, along with the names of everyone involved and the dates. He hopes that one day, this information will help him bring justice and take down the Nickel Academy.

Elwood and Turner overhear Spencer instructing Griff to take a dive in the third round of Nickel’s annual Black-White boxing match. It’s clearly part of a larger betting scheme among the staff, including Spencer himself. Despite discovering this corruption, there’s nothing Elwood or Turner can do with this information.

During the annual Black-White boxing match, Griff fights with full intensity in the third round and ultimately wins, either not understanding Spencer’s instructions to lose or deliberately defying them. His decision proves fatal. Spencer takes him away and brutally beats him to death in retaliation for disobeying orders.

While waiting for Harper during one of their off-campus chores, Elwood accidentally drops his notebook. Turner picks it up and asks why Elwood carries it everywhere. Elwood reveals he’s been documenting everything, hoping this evidence could shut down Nickel and free them all. Turner reacts with fear, he warns Elwood that the staff would kill him if they discovered his notes. With growing dread, Turner realizes that after eliminating Elwood, he would be next in line.

Directed by American filmmaker RaMell Ross from a screenplay he co-wrote with Joslyn Barnes, NICKEL BOYS is a historical drama that follows two Black teenagers in a juvenile reformatory. The film is based on Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys”.

The story unfolds through the protagonist’s perspective, offering an intriguing and distinctive narrative approach. While primarily set in the 1960s, the film occasionally shifts to 1988, which can be disorienting as we experience the world through both Elwood and Turner.

The film doesn’t explain why the viewpoint alternates between these characters rather than maintaining a single perspective throughout. Interestingly, during the 1988 sequences, the camera position changes from the protagonist’s direct point of view to a shot from behind his head, suggesting an observer — perhaps a spirit or guardian angel — watching over him.

The film’s use of first-person perspective, while immersive, often comes across as a mere gimmick rather than meaningful storytelling. The back-and-forth switching between the two main characters’ viewpoints doesn’t add depth but instead feels like a contrived technique solely designed to conceal which character escapes the Academy and which one dies. The film’s perspective issues worsen when depicting the adult protagonist. When showing his older self, the camera inexplicably pulls back, creating an irritating, shaky image that judders with every movement of his head.

In 2018, adult Elwood (Daveed Diggs) is devastated after reading the news headline “Human Remains and Unmarked Graves Discovered at Grounds of Former Nickel Academy,” revealing that the remains likely belong to children.

Though Nickel Academy is fictional, it draws inspiration from the real-life Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Florida. The Dozier School operated for over a century and gained notoriety for its horrific legacy of abuse — physical beatings, sexual assault, and the discovery of unmarked graves containing children’s remains on the school grounds.

The Florida School for Boys, also known as the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys (AGDS), was a reform school operated by the state of Florida in the panhandle town of Marianna from 1 January 1900 to 30 June 2011. The state-run institution in Marianna, Florida developed a horrific reputation for systemic abuse, including beatings, rapes, torture, and even murder of students by staff throughout its 111-year history. After failing a state inspection in 2009, the school faced a governor-ordered investigation. While this initial probe didn’t uncover graves, it opened the door to closer examination. The school permanently closed in June 2011, officially due to budget constraints. The following year, University of South Florida researchers led by Erin Kimmerle received permission to conduct a forensic anthropology survey of the grounds. Her team identified 55 burials — most located outside the designated cemetery — and documented nearly 100 deaths at the institution. The investigation continued to yield disturbing findings when, in 2019, ground-penetrating radar detected 27 additional suspected graves during preliminary work for a pollution cleanup project.

The cast delivers impressive performances particularly Brandon Wilson as Elwood’s friend Turner and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Elwood’s grandmother Hattie. Fred Hechinger also stands out as Harper, portraying a seemingly friendly staff member without the overt prejudice toward Black juveniles shown by his colleagues. However, Hechinger skillfully reveals Harper’s ability to flip instantly into cold-hearted cruelty when circumstances require it, creating a chilling contrast without missing a beat.

NICKEL BOYS premiered at Telluride Film Festival on 30 August 2024. The film had a limited theatrical release in the United States on 13 December 2024, by MGM Studios.