In 2017, Ms. Caples received The Gene Siskel Film Center's “Legacy Award" and was included in the Reader newspaper’s, "Top 50 Film Organizations" for the third time. Ms. Caples is featured in the documentary and book, Women of Vision: Histories in Feminist Film and Video by Alexandra Juhasz. She was honored with the first Big Shoulders award by the Chicago Film Critics’ Association; the CityArts 20th Anniversary award presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs; and the ETA Creative Arts Foundation award for “Stretching the Boundaries.” 

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Other awards include the 2005 Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video Deloris Jordan Award for Excellence in Community Leadership; the Dr. Margaret Burroughs Legacy Award from the Women's Board of the DuSable Museum of African American History (2014); the “Out of the Box Thinkers” presented by CHI-TOWN Multicultural Film Festival (2015); and Chicago Cultural Treasures 2021 by IFF.