Black History Month ends in February, but in the world of film, black history has a chance to be made just a few days later, during the Academy Awards on March 7.

Lee Daniels, who made the harrowing Harlem tale “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” is only the second black filmmaker nominated for Best Director, after John Singleton for 1991’s “Boyz N the Hood.” Although he is considered a long shot, if he wins the Oscar, Daniels will be the first black filmmaker to earn the directing statuette.

“Precious” has six Oscar nods, including Best Picture, Best Actress for newcomer Gabourey Sidibe and Best Adapted Screenplay. Mo’Nique is considered a lock to take home the Best Supporting Actress prize for her stomach-wrenching turn as Precious’ abusive mother.

The fairy tale “The Princess and the Frog” is nominated for three Oscars, for two of its original songs and for Best Animated Feature. The film stars the first black Disney princess, Tiana (voice of Tony-winner Anika Noni Rose), and she is a kind, talented and hardworking heroine.

And Morgan Freeman, a frequent Oscar nominee and Best Supporting Actor winner for “Million Dollar Baby,” is vying for Best Actor for his dignified portrayal of South African President Nelson Mandela in the uplifting, racially conscious sports drama “Invictus.”

For those who prefer to end Black History Month with a good movie this weekend, here are some other acclaimed options on DVD:

•“Malcolm X” (1992): Denzel Washington earned an Oscar nomination for his turn as the contentious and influential Black Nationalist leader.

•“The Color Purple” (1985): Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was nominated for 11 Oscars. Set in the early 1900s, it chronicles the struggles and ultimate triumph of Celie Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg).

•“Shaft” (1971): What’s a black-history movie list without the most famous blaxploitation film of them all? Isaac Hayes earned the Best Original Song Oscar for the theme, and Richard Roundtree became the ultimate in cool private eyes.

•“Honeydripper” (2007): Get to the roots of rock ’n’ roll with John Sayles’ 1950 period piece, which won an Image Award for Best Independent Film. Pine Top Purvis’ (Danny Glover) plans to save his small-town blues club go awry when the famed electric guitar player he has hired fails to show.

•“Glory” (1989): Based on the true story of one of the first black regiments of the U.S. Army, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, this Civil War film took home three Oscars, including Denzel Washington’s first, for Best Supporting Actor. The story is drawn from the letters of white Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick) – all the film’s officers are white, just as in real life – but “Glory” is one of the few top-notch Hollywood movies to pay tribute to the role black soldiers have played in U.S. military history.

•“Roots” (1977): One of the most famous TV miniseries ever made, this dramatization of author Alex Haley’s family line from ancestor Kunta Kinte’s (LeVar Burton) enslavement to his descendents’ liberation garnered nine Emmys, including acting honors for Louis Gossett Jr., Ed Asner and Olivia Cole.

•“The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974): Cicely Tyson won two Emmys for taking TV viewers on the life journey of a black woman who is born into slavery in the 1850s and lives long enough to get involved in the 1960s civil-rights movement.

•“The Scalphunters” (1968): In this comedic Western, crusty trapper Joe Bass (Burt Lancaster) is forced to trade his valuable furs for Joseph Lee (Ossie Davis was nominated for a Golden Globe for the role), an educated escaped slave. While Bass hunts for the Kiowas who stole his pelts and later the outlaws who killed them, Lee lets himself be held captive by the scalphunters, who are bound for slavery-free Mexico.

•“In the Heat of the Night” (1967): Sidney Poitier, one of the best dramatic actors ever, utters one of the most quoted movie lines ever – “They call me Mister Tibbs!” – in this racially charged murder mystery, which won five Oscars, including Best Picture.