Focus Features Announces New Comedy From Director Kobi Libii The American Society of Magical Negroes

Focus Features will release filmmaker Kobi Libii’s feature directorial debut, The American Society of Magical Negroes, on March 22, 2024. Libii is an alumnus of both the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and Directors Lab, where he first developed the project. The American Society of Magical Negroes is a fresh, satirical comedy about a young man, Aren, who is recruited into a secret society of magical Black people who dedicate their lives to a cause of utmost importance: making white people’s lives easier.

The film stars Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver, Michaela Watkins, Rupert Friend, and Nicole Byer, and is produced by Julia Lebedev and Eddie Vaisman of Sight Unseen, Angel Lopez, and Kobi Libii.

Kobi Libii is a writer/director/actor, most recently seen writing and performing on Comedy Central’s The Opposition with Jordan Klepper.

Focus Features’ slate includes Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers starring Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, along with upcoming titles Drive-Away Dolls from Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke starring Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Beanie Feldstein, Zelda William’s feature directorial debut Lisa Frankenstein, written by Diablo Cody, as well as Back to Black about the life and music of Amy Winehouse from director Sam Taylor-Johnson, Robert Eggers’ reimagining of Nosferatu, which stars Bill Skarsgard, Lily Rose-Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron-Taylor Johnson and Willem Dafoe, Baltasar Kormakur’s Touch, and Goran Stolevski’s new feature, Housekeeping for Beginners, among others.

Focus is distributing The American Society of Magical Negroes in the U.S. with Universal Pictures International handling international distribution.