Category: Press Release

Now On Sale: BlackStar Projects’ Seen Issue 009

BlackStar is thrilled to announce that the ninth issue of Seen—the organization’s bi-annual journal of film and visual culture, dedicated to platforming nuanced and rigorous writing by and about Black, Brown and Indigenous communities globally—is now on sale. The issue is available for order here.

Seen 009’s cover features André Holland, in a photo taken by Martika Avalon for a feature story written by Murtada Elfadl, that finds the Love, Brooklyn star reflecting on why he’s seeking the role of student at this time in his life. Other highlights from the issue’s mix of conversations, profiles, interviews, essays and reviews include Portals and Expansions: Black Film Distribution, an essay by Black Film Archive founder Maya S. Cade; a studio visit with artist Sanford Biggers; Gaza, 5:45 a.m., a photo diary by Eman Mohammed; a letter to young cinematographers from Sinners’ Autumn Durald Arkapaw; a tribute to the trailblazing curator Koyo Kouoh, written by various artists; filmmaker Yance Ford in conversation with sound designer and Third World Newsreel executive director JT Takagi and Ryan Coogler’s Communions with the Dead, a profile of the director written by Kambole Campbell.

On October 29, 2025, in collaboration with the Open Society Foundations and Urban Outfitters, BlackStar will celebrate the release of Seen 009 with a launch event at Percy Restaurant & Bar in Philadelphia. The event will feature a conversation between contributors Nicole G. Young, Bedatri Datta Choudhury and Heidi Saman, editor-in-chief of Seen. The three will discuss Black speculative fiction and a Mumbai artists’ collective that’s reimagining the archive. RSVP here.

The journal is on sale at stockists around the world including Ulises and Omoi Life Goods in Philadelphia; Periodicals in Detroit; Reparations Club, Vidiots and Skylight Books in Los Angeles; Amant, McNally Jackson and Printed Matter in New York; Chess Club in Portland, magCulture in London and Issues in Toronto.

Seen is supported by Open Society Foundations and is printed in the United States by Sheridan.

BlackStar Projects and its year-round programming is generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, City of Philadelphia, Color Congress, Department of Community and Economic Development, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.

About BlackStar Projects

BlackStar Projects, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Beyond the annual film festival the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of film, art and visual culture.

These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.

11 November, 2025
BlackStar Projects Announces 2025 Luminary Gala

BlackStar Projects is pleased to announce its 2025 Luminary Gala Awards, honoring Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Meshell Ndegeocello, Robert Townsend and Third World Newsreel. The gala will take place on November 21, 2025 at Switch House in Philadelphia from 6PM-10:30PM. Ticketing and sponsorship information is available here.

Established in 2012, the Luminary Awards have been given to a wide range of artists, cultural leaders and collectives whose contributions align with BlackStar’s mission of creating a more just and liberatory world. Past recipients have included Mira Nair, Menelik Shabazz, Ava DuVernay, Julie Dash, dream hampton and RZA. First held in 2023, the Luminary Gala is an unforgettable evening in celebration of the luminaries shaping and shifting the arts, culture and media landscape. Bringing together artists, philanthropists and BlackStar’s community of friends, the event shines a light on the organization’s work to garner further support for its suite of year-round cultural programming that provides Black, Brown and Indigenous artists with the resources and support they need to thrive. This year’s Gala will be hosted by journalist and music industry trailblazer Dyana Williams.

This year’s Luminary Award recipients display a commitment to social justice, embracing collaboration and celebrating a wide spectrum of aesthetics and storytelling practices. The 2025 honorees are: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, a cinematographer whose trailblazing work has opened up new pathways for visual storytelling; Meshell Ndegeocello, a genre-defying musician whose boundless sonic innovations spark renewed interest in Soul music; Robert Townsend, a towering figure in the world of Independent Film, where he has directed and produced blockbuster films and critically incisive series and Third World Newsreel, a news organization that has championed cultural and social justice in media for almost sixty years.

Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC, is a visionary cinematographer known for bold, atmospheric visuals. Her recent work includes Sinners (2025), the first film shot by a female cinematographer on IMAX 65mm and The Last Showgirl (2024). Autumn also lensed Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), earning major box office success and an Oscar nod for Rihanna’s ‘Lift Me Up.’ An Emmy nominee for Loki, she has also collaborated with Spike Jonze, Gia Coppola, and Aziz Ansari. A graduate of AFI, she was the first woman of color on American Cinematographer’s cover and is represented by Iconic and LUX Artists.

Meshell Ndegeocello has survived the best and worst of what a career in music has to offer. She eschewed genre for originality, celebrity for longevity and musical trends for musical truths. Fans have come to expect the unexpected and follow her on sojourns into soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop and rock, all bound by the search for love, justice, respect and resolution. Those sonic investigations have defied and redefined the expectations for women, queer artists and for Black music for over 30 years. She remains one of few women who write the music, sing the songs and lead the band.

Robert Townsend transcends any medium he touches, whether performing stand-up, acting, writing, directing or producing. With over 30 years in the business, Townsend is often called the ‘Godfather’ of the Independent Film World. An out-of-the-box thinker, he has made an indelible mark in Hollywood with an extensive list of credits. Robert’s recent directing credits include multiple episodes of Poppa’s House and Power Book IV: Force. He directed multiple episodes of the NAACP Image Award-winning The Best Man: The Final Chapters. Additional directing work can be seen on Netflix’s Kaleidoscope and Colin in Black & White.

Third World Newsreel (TWN) has advanced movement storytelling and media arts for cultural and social justice since 1968. They champion the self-representation of historically marginalized communities—including Black, Latine, Indigenous, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, North African, Mixed/Multiracial, People with Disabilities and LGBTQIA+ individuals—through diverse genres and forms of media, such as documentary, experimental and fiction. Their aim is to create, engage and amplify stories while creatively activating audiences. Their comprehensive support includes hands-on training, fiscal sponsorship, educational distribution and preservation, all designed to advance cultural justice and societal change. From documentary and experimental to narratives, TWN is committed to shaping a media landscape where diversity and intersectionality are not merely represented but are central to social transformation.

The Luminary Gala is a microcosm of BlackStar’s multiplicity, an intentional community building moment, connecting its profound, diverse audience in a Black-led space centered on joy and thriving. Sponsors and contributors will be directly investing in the sustainability of BlackStar’s efforts to rectify systemic imbalances in the media arts and beyond and support the mission of amplifying the moving image as a transformative tool for social change.

The Luminary Gala host committee includes Adjoa Jones de Almeida, Allison Acevedo, Brandon Pankey, Deesha Philyaw, Donna Frisby-Greenwood, Ernest Owens, Irit Reinheimer. James Claiborne, Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, Jermaine Jenkins, Joe Hill, Korin Williams, Kurt Evans, Loira Limbal, Louis Massiah, Nikil Saval, Omar Woodard, Omar Tate, Raymond Perkins, Senator Vincent Hughes, Senator Nikil Saval, Val Gay.

BlackStar Projects and its year-round programming is generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, City of Philadelphia, Critical Minded, Color Congress, Department of Community and Economic Development, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.

About BlackStar Projects
BlackStar Projects, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Beyond the annual film festival the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of film, art and visual culture.

These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.

9 September, 2025
BlackStar Film Festival Announces 2025 Jury and Audience Award Winners

BlackStar Projects celebrated its 14th annual film festival this past weekend and is proud to announce the jury and audience award winners.

The 2025 edition of the festival continued to break ground and push boundaries by spotlighting genre-defying films and hosting critically incisive conversations with an expansive community of filmmakers, artists, panelists and festival goers, all of whom met the moment with enthusiasm as this year’s festival welcomed thousands of attendees and record-breaking sales, including sold out screenings of Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez’s TCB — The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing on opening night, Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions on Friday and multiple other films throughout the weekend.

From the 93 films screened, juried awards for Best Feature Documentary were given to Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez’s film; for Best Feature Narrative to Sugar Island, directed by Johanne Gomez Terrero; for Best Experimental film to The River, directed by Herrana Addisu; for Best Short Documentary to Correct Me If I’m Wrong (如你所愿), directed by Hao Zhou and for Best Short Narrative to The Last Harvest, directed by Nuno Boaventura Miranda. The Philadelphia Filmmaker Award was given to Talking Walls, directed by Marcellus.

In collaboration with Blackbird, BlackStar hosted the sixth annual BlackStar Pitch at the festival and announced the winner as Hysterical, a forthcoming project from filmmaker Kya Lou. Jamil McGinnis’ Wahnish Keeps Me Free was selected as the pitch runner-up. Lou will receive $75,000, mentorship from Multitude Films and other benefits, while McGinnis’ production will receive $25,000.

Winners were announced at the annual Director’s Brunch and Awards Ceremony, celebrating all of the festival’s directors.

BlackStar also invited its audience to select awards in Favorite Feature Narrative (Love, Brooklyn), Favorite Feature Documentary (TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing), Favorite Short Narrative (Food for the Soul), Favorite Short Documentary (Talking Walls) and Favorite Experimental (Untitled (How High the Moon)) categories. More information on the award winning films from all categories is below.

The BlackStar panel series saw audiences overflow from The Daily Jawn Stage co-sponsored by NEON, with panelists and moderators engaging in lively conversation, inviting global perspectives and challenging dialogues on various topics, including a spotlight conversation with Killer of Sheep director Charles Burnett.

Notable guests and speakers at this year’s festival included Letitia Wright, André Holland, Kahlil Joseph, Cauleen Smith, Elegance Bratton, Adam Piron, Kevin Jerome Everson, Rachael Abigail Holder, Stanley Nelson and Meg Onli.

Beyond film, the festival’s activation of the city provided wonderful opportunities for artists, filmmakers and film enthusiasts to engage at sold out parties and events throughout the weekend. BlackStar is committed to furthering this international communal experience as it looks ahead to next year’s film festival, which will take place from August 6-9, 2026.

Select award winning films are available to stream now here.

Jury Awards

Best Feature Documentary

TCB — The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing directed by Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez

Jury Note: This elegant, intergenerational film stretches the imagination not merely around what art can do, but what an artist can do. The film serves as a manual, it is the medicine that we need right now to uplift and inspire us. It is intimate and epic at the same time and a film that’s clear in its commitment to community.

Short Narrative

The Last Harvest directed by Nuno Boaventura Miranda

Jury Note: Multi-sensorial, gorgeous, abstract and palpable, this film is loaded with subtle gestures and a clever use of repetition which renders it cinematically breathtaking. The visual choreo poem contains a surprising sonic personality, seamless weaving together of two narratives and beautifully executed acting.

Honorable Mention: Oceania, directed by Valentin Noujaïm

Experimental Film

The River directed by Herrana Addisu

Jury Note: In this wonderfully edited film, the filmmaker weaves together sound, image, acting, movement and story into a cohesive and deep transgenerational narrative. The use of beautiful cinematography, symmetry and the rhythm of music tells of the barriers faced by women with a subtle nod to classism.

Honorable Mention: A Luta Continua // Ataraxy 44, directed by Curtis Essel

Feature Narrative

Sugar Island directed by Johanne Gomez Terrero

Jury Note: This is an intentionally and carefully made film, characterized by a complex texture that the filmmaker maintains throughout their storytelling. The film felt visceral in its spiritual elements and it managed to bring its audience in without minimizing those practices. The jury applauds the visual-emotional environment conveyed in this beautifully shot film.

Short Documentary

Correct Me if I’m Wrong directed by Hao Zhou

Jury Note: The jury awards a film that is replete with juxtapositions—spaciousness and claustrophobia, tolerance and intolerance, energy and calm. This film evokes a feeling of discomfort that is difficult to shake after the film is over. Yet in that discomfort, the filmmaker handles the subject with care and nuance, featuring strong characters, sound design and intimacy.

Audience Awards

Favorite Feature Narrative

Love, Brooklyn directed by Rachael Abigail Holder

Favorite Feature Documentary

TCB — The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing directed by Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez

Favorite Short Narrative

Food for the Soul directed by Chisom Chieke

Favorite Short Documentary

Talking Walls directed by Marcellus

Favorite Experimental

Untitled (How High the Moon) directed by Rashida Bumbray

Special Awards

BlackStar Pitch

Winner — Hysterical directed by Kya Lou

Runner-up — Wahnish Keeps Me Free directed by Jamil McGinnis, produced by Resita Cox

Jurors: Jess Devaney, Founder & President, Multitude Films; Jihan Robinson, Producer; Noland Walker
VP, Content, Independent Television Service (ITVS); Shanida Scotland, Head of Film (UK), Doc Society; Sharifa Johka, Co-Chair, IP Acquisitions, Twenty43 Ventures

Philadelphia Filmmaker Award

Talking Walls directed by Marcellus

Jury Note: The Independence Public Media Foundation jury awards a film that honors the voice and strength of a queer black elder with a creative, beautiful, and unexpected approach.

Shine Award

16 1/2 directed by Harlan Banks

Chosen by BlackStar Members.

—

This year’s festival was presented with major support from Open Society Foundations. Other sponsors include American Friends Service Committee, Andscape, Black Public Media, The Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia, Color Congress, Criterion, Critical Minded, Eventive, Firelight Media, Hyperallergic, Impact Partners, Independence Public Media Foundation, ITVS, Kashif, Monarch Yoga, NEON, PECO, Philadelphia Foundation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pillars Fund, Runway, SAGIndie, State Representative Rick Krajewski, StoryCorps, Ten to One Rum, Twenty43, University of Pennsylvania Department of Cinema & Media Studies, Visit Philadelphia, Xfinity, and WORLD Channel.

BlackStar Projects and its year-round programs are generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Critical Minded, Department of Community and Economic Development, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation and Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.

4 August, 2025
BlackStar Projects Releases Full Schedule of Programs for 2025 Film Festival
BlackStar Projects, the premier organization celebrating visionary Black, Brown and Indigenous film and media artists, is thrilled to announce the full schedule of programs, jury and award nominees for the 2025 BlackStar Film Festival, taking place from July 31-August 3, 2025. Click here to browse the full schedule. All individual program tickets are now on sale here, with festival passes also available here.

The festival is an annual celebration of independent cinema from the global majority and a one-of-a-kind gathering of diverse audiences centered on connection, discussion and learning, with nearly every screening followed by a Q&A. The world premiere of TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing, directed by Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez, will be the festival’s opening night screening and THE GREAT NORTH, directed by Jenn Nkiru and making its North American premiere, will be the closing night screening. Other highlights include a special screening of Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions and the 4K restoration of Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep, with both filmmakers expected in-person for Spotlight Conversations.

The Daily Jawn will return at this year’s festival as a live morning show. Co-sponsored by NEON and hosted by Maori Karmael Holmes, Rashid Zakat and Anne Ishii, the show presents conversations with featured filmmakers, festival programmers and other special guests. Additionally, panels featuring industry experts and thought leaders will be held throughout the festival, challenging attendees to consider new perspectives as they engage with the work. Notable guests and speakers at this year’s festival include Letitia Wright, Charles Burnett, Kahlil Joseph, Saidiya Hartman, Cauleen Smith, Elegance Bratton, Adam Piron, Kevin Jerome Everson, Rachael Abigail Holder, Stanley Nelson, JT Takagi and Meg Onli.

“Each festival has been very special, but this year’s lineup feels especially epic,” said Chief Executive and Artistic Officer, Maori Karmael Holmes. “I’m looking forward to communing with filmmakers and audiences, sharing a collective laugh or cry. I think at this moment in time the restorative and liberatory power of cinema is essential.”

In addition to film and panels, there will be a variety of other festival programming in-person. Selections include the return of BlackStar Pitch, presented in partnership with Blackbird—a live competition open to public attendance, which will award $75,000 in production funds to a winning short documentary—along with First Friday at The Barnes Foundation, featuring an evening of art, live music, cocktails and light fare, co-presented by Hyperallergic.

BlackStar Projects’ Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab, a year-long fellowship program that awards $50,000 in production funds to four local filmmakers developing a short narrative film, will culminate at this year’s festival with the world premiere of the four short films.

This year’s festival jury, listed in full below, will consider nominees for Best Experimental Film, Best Feature Documentary, Best Feature Narrative, Best Short Documentary and Best Short Narrative.

BlackStar will also host a mix of parties and community events throughout the weekend including the opening night party at Cherry Street Pier; the annual BlackStar Bazaar, offering a curated shopping experience that celebrates community and Black-owned businesses and this year’s closing night party at STAR|Bolt, co-presented by Visit Philly.

“This year’s entire program has been intentionally curated to meet the moment,” said Festival Director Nehad Khader. “We can’t wait to welcome our community to Philadelphia to celebrate cinema for liberation.” All access passes for the festival are available for purchase here and individual tickets for in-person and virtual screenings are available here. The full schedule of programs is below (all times EST):

Major Spotlights:
- [dot] TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing (w/ Q&A) – Thursday, July 31 @ 8:00pm — Kimmel Center
- [dot] BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions – Friday, August 1 @ 9:00pm — Kimmel Center
- [dot] Killer of Sheep – Sunday, August 3 @ 11:30am — Wilma Theater
- [dot] THE GREAT NORTH (w/ Q&A) – Sunday, August 3 @ 8:30pm — Kimmel Center
BlackStar Juried Awards Categories & Nominees:

Best Feature Documentary

Nominees:
- [dot] 16 ½ directed by Harlan Banks
- [dot] THE GREAT NORTH directed by Jenn Nkiru
- [dot] TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing directed by Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez
Jurors: Asad Muhammad, Bao Nguyen, Tracy Rector

Best Short Documentary

Nominees:
- [dot] 如你所愿 (Correct Me If I’m Wrong) directed by Hao Zhou
- [dot] The Devil Is Busy directed by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir
- [dot] Piñata Prayers directed by Daniel Larios
- [dot] Tessitura directed by Lydia Cornett and Brit Fryer
- [dot] Tiger directed by Loren Waters
- [dot] We Were the Scenery directed by Christopher Radcliff
Jurors: Nell Augustin, Sonya Childress, Zaina Bseis

Best Feature Narrative

Nominees:
- [dot] Sabbatical directed by Karabo Lediga
- [dot] Sugar Island directed by Johanne Gomez Terrero
- [dot] White House (Kasa Branca) directed by Luciano Vidigal
Jurors: Aseye Tamakloe, Jason Reynolds, Lindsay Monture

Best Short Narrative

Nominees:
- [dot] Eternal Kinship directed by Arbin Rai
- [dot] The Last Harvest directed by Nuno Boaventura Miranda
- [dot] Leaving Ikorodu in 1999 directed by Rashida Seriki
- [dot] LWC – Lazy White Cows directed by Asaph Luccas
- [dot] Oceania directed by Valentin Noujaïm
- [dot] Seek No Favor directed by Elle Clay and Leilah Weinraub
Jurors: Dagmawi Woubshet, Fariha Róisín, Lynnée Denise

Best Experimental Film

Nominees:
- [dot] A Luta Continua // Ataraxy 44 directed by Curtis Essel
- [dot] Natimorto directed by Ibrahem Hasan and Leandro HBL
- [dot] The River directed by Herrana Addisu
- [dot] Untitled (How High the Moon) directed by Rashida Bumbray
- [dot] The Volcano Manifesto directed by Cauleen Smith
Jurors: Awa Konaté, Emily Jacir, Jason Moran

Additional Awards
- [dot] Philadelphia Filmmaker Award
- [dot] Shine Award for First-Time Filmmakers (Voted by BlackStar Members)
For more information on the festival and its programs, visit https://www.blackstarfest.org/festival.

This year’s festival is presented with major support from Open Society Foundations. Other sponsors include American Friends Service Committee, Andscape, Black Public Media, The Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia, Color Congress, Eventive, Firelight Media, Hyperallergic, Impact Partners, Independence Public Media Foundation, ITVS, Kashif, Monarch Yoga, NEON, PECO, Philadelphia Foundation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pillars Fund, Runway, SAGIndie, State Representative Rick Krajewski, StoryCorps, Ten to One Rum, Twenty43, University of Pennsylvania Department of Cinema & Media Studies, Visit Philadelphia and WORLD Channel.

BlackStar Projects and its year-round programs are generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Critical Minded, Department of Community and Economic Development, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation and Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.

About BlackStar Projects

BlackStar Projects, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Beyond the annual film festival the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of film, art and visual culture.

These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.
1 July, 2025
BlackStar Film Festival Announces 2025 Film Lineup

BlackStar Projects, the premier organization celebrating visionary Black, Brown and Indigenous film and media artists, is thrilled to announce the selections for the 2025 BlackStar Film Festival.

This year’s festival will take place from July 31-August 3, 2025, with in-person film screenings at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Wilma Theater and the Suzanne Roberts Theatre. Parties and events will be held at various venues across Philadelphia to mark the 14th annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of Black, Brown and Indigenous people from around the world.

All access passes for the festival are available for purchase here; individual tickets for in-person and virtual screenings will go on sale in early July.

The 2025 BlackStar Film Festival is set to feature a total of 92 films representing 35 countries, including 20 World, 13 North American, 4 United States, 7 East Coast and 46 Philadelphia premieres. This year’s films explore an expansive range of ideas and issues from independent filmmakers of the global majority, including the use of music as a tool of resistance, pathways to thriving amidst political repression and environmental crisis and stories that show the importance of long-term, sustainable community building.

Highlights from this year’s robust lineup include the world premiere of Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez’s TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing, the North American premiere of Jenn Nkiru’s The Great North, a special screening of Kahlil Joseph’s BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions and the North America premiere of Letitia Wright’s Highway to the Moon.

“We have a collection of films in this year’s program that embody BlackStar’s vision of cinema as a tool for liberation,” said Festival Director, Nehad Khader. “Amidst troubling times, these filmmakers remind us of what is possible.”

In addition to film, there will be a slate of festival programming in-person. Selections include the return of BlackStar Pitch—a live competition open to public attendance, which will award $75,000 in production funds to a winning short documentary—presented in partnership with Blackbird, daily panels and conversations with filmmakers and industry leaders, along with a Friday night concert and celebration at The Barnes Foundation.

“In our fourteenth year we continue to view the festival as an urgent gathering for filmmakers and cinephiles of color,” said BlackStar Founder, Chief Executive & Artistic Officer, Maori Karmael Holmes. “The need in this moment is not only for visionary cinema, but to be in space together around the work—to experience pleasure, rejuvenation and radical care in ways that push us towards action.”

BlackStar Film Festival has grown in attendance year over year, with more than 17,000 attendees participating in 2024. Beyond the festival, BlackStar Projects continues to expand its reach with initiatives like the Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab, a year long fellowship program that awards $50,000 in production funds to four local filmmakers developing a short narrative film. The program will culminate at this year’s festival with the world premiere of the four short films that were developed in BlackStar’s lab over the last year.

Among BlackStar Projects’ other programs are Seen, a journal of film, art and visual culture, that recently published its eighth issue and the William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar, held in March with Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts. The organization also recently celebrated the addition of André Robert Lee, President & Founder, Many Things Productions, to its board of directors.

The full lineup of films is below:

16 ½, directed by Harlan Banks

A LUTA CONTINUA // ATARAXY 44, directed by Curtis Essel

A New Voice, directed by Mike Davis and Debbie Davis

Adamstown, directed by Andrew Bilindabagabo

All That’s Left of You, directed by Cherien Dabis

all the love i could handle , directed by Ruby Rose Collins

Another Other, directed by Bex Oluwatoyin Thompson

Axel, directed by Stefani Saintonge

Binnigula’sa’ (Ancient Zapotec People), directed by Jorge Ángel Pérez

Black Glass, directed by Adam Piron

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, directed by Kahlil Joseph

Bloodlines, Mississippi, directed by Crystal Kayiza

Boil That Cabbage Down, directed by Candace Williamson

Brick by Brick, directed by Victória Álvares and Quentin Delaroche

Bubbling Baby, directed by Sharine Rijsenburg

Budget Paradise , directed by LaTajh Simmons-Weaver

Bukra (بُكرا), directed by Alex Aljouni

Cais, directed by Safira Moreira

Carissa, directed by Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar

Celestine (Florida Storm), directed by Allison Janae Hamilton

Children of the Waves (Enfants des Courants d’Eaux), directed by Kezia Sakho

Compensation, directed by Zeinabu irene Davis

Correct Me If I’m Wrong (Ru ni suo yuan), directed by Hao Zhou

Dear Sikhonkwane, directed by Sihle Hlophe

Della Can Fly!, directed by Jasmine Lynea

Don’t Cry, Butterfly (Mưa trên cánh bướm), directed by Dương Diệu Linh

Dooni, directed by Kevin Jerome Everson and Claudrena N. Harold

Eternal Kinship (अनन्त नाता), directed by Arbin Rai

Exodus, directed by Nimco Sheikhaden

Food for the Soul, directed by Chisom Chieke

Gazan Tales (غزة التي تطل على البحر), directed by Mahmoud Nabil Ahmed

Hanami, directed by Denise Fernandes

Hatchlings, directed by Jahmil Eady

Highway to the Moon, directed by Letitia Wright

Hosts for Half a Century (Anfitriões há meio século), directed by Typju Mỹky and André Tupxi Lopes

Images de Tunisie (صور من تونس), directed by Younès Ben Slimane

Kanenon:we – Original Seeds, directed by Katsitsionni Fox

L’Arbre de l’Authenticité, directed by Sammy Baloji

Lana, directed by Laetitia Angba and Julie R. Lissouba

Las Cosas Que Brillan, directed by Kristal Sotomayor

Last Hoorah at G-Baby’s , directed by DeeDee Casimir

Leaving Ikorodu In 1999, directed by Rashida Seriki

Lees Waxul, directed by Yoro Mbaye

Listen to Me, directed by Stephanie Etienne and Kanika Harris

Listen to the Voices (Kouté vwa), directed by Maxime Jean-Baptiste

Love, Brooklyn, directed by Rachael Abigail Holder

LWC (Lazy White Cows) (VBP (Vacas Brancas Preguiçosas)), directed by Asaph Luccas

Maqluba, directed by Mike Elsherif

Move Ya Body: The Birth of House, directed by Elegance Bratton

Natimorto, directed by Ibrahem Hasan and Leandro HBL

Next Life, directed by Tenzin Phuntsog

Nobody’s Word, directed by Camara Taylor

OCEANIA, directed by Valentin Noujaïm

One Day This Kid, directed by Alexander Farah

Oríkì Oshun, directed by Elena Guzman

Otherworld, directed by Lokotah Sanborn

Piñata Prayers, directed by Daniel Larios

Possible Landscapes, directed by Kannan Arunasalam

Ree’s Destiny, directed by Steven Mosley

Remaining Native, directed by Paige Bethmann

RUN, SISTER JOAN, directed by Wale Oyejide

Sabbatical, directed by Karabo Lediga

Seeds, directed by Brittany Shyne

Seek No Favor, directed by Elle Clay and Leilah Weinraub

Space to Breathe, directed by Juicebox P. Burton

Spaces As Traces, directed by Teo Shi Yun

Speaking in Tongues: Take One, directed by Christopher Harris

Sugar Island, directed by Johanne Gomez Terrero

Sun Ra: Do the Impossible, directed by Christine Turner

Talking Walls, directed by Marcellus

TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing, directed by Louis Massiah and Monica Henriquez

Teaching America, directed by Anurima Bhargava

Tessitura, directed by Lydia Cornett and Brit Fryer

The Debutantes, directed by Contessa Gayles

The Devil Is Busy, directed by Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing, directed by Theo Panagopoulos

The Great North, directed by Jenn Nkiru

The Last Harvest, directed by Nuno Boaventura Miranda

The River, directed by Herrana Addisu

The Shadow Scholars, directed by Eloise King

The Sixth Borough, directed by Jason Pollard

The Volcano Manifesto, directed by Cauleen Smith

Third Act, directed by Tadashi Nakamura

Tiger, directed by Loren Waters

Twenty Three, directed by Wasima Farah and Kamyar Mohsenin

Two Niles, directed by Rodrigo de Janeiro and Samuel Lobo

Untitled (How High the Moon), directed by Rashida Bumbray

Viet and Nam, directed by Minh Quy Truong

We Want The Funk!, directed by Stanley Nelson and Nicole London

We Were the Scenery, directed by Christopher Radcliff

White House (Kasa Branca), directed by Luciano Vidigal

Why the Sun & Moon Live in the Sky, directed by Aisha Bolaji

Information on juries, additional programming and events will be announced soon. For more information on the festival and its programs, visit https://www.blackstarfest.org/festival.

This year’s festival is presented with major support from Open Society Foundations. Other sponsors include American Friends Service Committee, Andscape, Black Public Media, Blueprint Commercial, The Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia, Color Congress, Eventive, Firelight Media, Hyperallergic, International Documentary Association, Impact Partners, ITVS, Kashif, Monarch Yoga, NEON, Philadelphia Foundation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Points North Institute, Runway, University of Pennsylvania Department of Cinema & Media Studies and WORLD Channel.

BlackStar Projects and its year-round programs are generously supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Critical Minded, Department of Community and Economic Development, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, NEO Philanthropy, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation and Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.

About BlackStar Projects
BlackStar Projects, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Beyond the annual film festival the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of film, art and visual culture.

These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.

3 June, 2025
BlackStar Projects Presents Joiri Minaya: Venus Flytrap

BlackStar Projects is pleased to present Venus Flytrap, a site-specific, four-day performance series and summer-long installation by Joiri Minaya that will take place at Bartram’s Garden in Philadelphia. Curated by writer and editor Dessane Lopez Cassell, the commissioned works will reflect on the intertwined legacies of freedom, extraction and ecology in North America’s oldest surviving botanical garden.

Much like the Venus flytrap, Joiri Minaya’s practice often employs beauty—utilizing sensuality, lush florals and hues—to invite deeper reflection on thornier aspects of history and the ongoing impacts of colonialism. Central to the performance series in Venus Flytrap will be new iterations of Minaya’s bodysuits, which she has previously deployed to critique the colonial-era conflation of the Caribbean with the image of a sanitized, idyllic paradise, associations which remain stubbornly pervasive today. More specifically, Minaya uses the bodysuits to examine the performative role that women and their bodies have been made to play in the creation of a commercially palatable set of images that stand in for the complexity of the Caribbean as a whole.

Designed with appropriated fabrics that she sources from the ‘tropical’ sections of both online and brick-and-mortar stores, Minaya repurposes these existing prints to effectively critique their production in the first place as images which reflect a commodified aesthetic of the Caribbean. Past suits have been tailored to contort the body into a single, fixed pose—typically one sourced from imagery found in postcards or tourism advertisements and which position the female body as a site of fantasy and consumption—so that the performer is understood to be physically constrained by the stereotypical images of tropical paradise. In Venus Flytrap, the new bodysuits will differ from these earlier examples not only by allowing the wearer freedom of movement, so that rather than emphasize restriction they will instead facilitate motion, fluidity and change, but also with the patterns Minaya is designing for them. Rather than reflect the stereotypical imagery of ‘paradise’ or ‘the tropics,’ Minaya has referenced botanical illustrations to create specific yet abstract renderings of various plant species that have been historically and culturally significant to Indigenous peoples and those of African descent throughout the Americas.

Each performance will take place at Bartram’s Garden, where Minaya will transform designated areas into an installation of newly designed textiles and canopies developed in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia. An array of chairs and artist-designed blankets and bandanas will be produced in partnership with ITA Leisure Goods and populated throughout the installation to encourage visitors to rest and reflect on Minaya’s interventions.

To develop the choreography for the performances Minaya will collaborate with Philadelphia-based artist and choreographer Jonathan González and enlist an ensemble of Philadelphia-based performers. Though the performances will all depart from the same choreography, Minaya will invite the specificity and novelty that accompanies a new day and with it a new audience, so that each performance stands as a unique experience.

Established in 1728, Bartram’s Garden is the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America and as such it encapsulates the complexities of Philadelphia’s history and our relationships with land more broadly. From its earliest uses as a hub for Indigenous trade, to the role of founder John Bartram in popularizing Eurocentric notions of ‘modern botany’—including his family’s role in promoting the Venus flytrap as their own discovery, effectively erasing its pre-colonial history—Bartram’s Garden can be understood as a microcosm for the ongoing colonial experiment.

With Venus Flytrap, Minaya extends her longrunning interest in critically exploring both the histories and possibilities of local and Indigenous plant life. Together, Minaya and Cassell will reveal the hidden stories of labor and anti-colonial resistance buried in the grounds of Bartram’s Garden and the historic Kingsessing neighborhood in which it resides, while tracing their echoes across the Americas.

“BlackStar is proud to present this visionary new work from Joiri Minaya, which not only illuminates the roots of colonialism in new ways but invites us, amidst ongoing uncertainty, to reflect on and imagine other possibilities for our communities,” said Chief Executive and Artistic Officer, Maori Karmael Holmes.

Additional programming will be announced in the coming weeks.

Major support for Venus Flytrap has been provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, with additional support from the William Penn Foundation.

About Joiri Minaya

Joiri Minaya is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist who works in photography, digital media, film, performance, sculpture, textiles and painting. Born in New York and raised in the Dominican Republic, Minaya describes her multiculturally-informed work as ‘a reassertion of Self, an exercise of unlearning, decolonizing, and exorcizing imposed histories.’ Minaya has recently been part of exhibitions and screenings at the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as well as international exhibitions like the Prospect 6 New Orleans Triennial, the Cooper Hewitt Triennial and the Sharjah Biennial 15. She is a recent recipient of the Latinx Artist Fellowship, NYSCA / NYFA Artist Fellowship, Jerome Hill Fellowship, Artadia award and has been an artist in residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, Light Work, Socrates Sculpture Park and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

About Dessane Lopez Cassell

Dessane Lopez Cassell is a New York-based editor, writer and curator. Her work spans film and visual art and their intersections, with a particular interest in race and gender. Cassell’s writing has been published in various magazines, journals, and books, including The Los Angeles Times, The Criterion Collection, Hyperallergic and Film Comment. She has curated exhibitions and screenings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Museum of Modern Art, Metrograph/Abrons Arts Center, The Studio Museum in Harlem and Anthology Film Archives. Cassell is a former programmer for BlackStar Film Festival and former Editor-in-Chief of BlackStar’s journal, Seen.

About BlackStar Projects
BlackStar Projects, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Beyond the annual film festival the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab and a journal of film, art and visual culture.

These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.

24 February, 2025
BlackStar Projects Announces Festival Dates & Winter Program

BlackStar Projects is pleased to announce its winter program and upcoming events, including the dates and submission opening for the 14th annual BlackStar Film Festival taking place this summer.

At the beginning of a new year, BlackStar also looks back on a transformative 2024, which included a $1 million Arts & Culture grant from the Mellon Foundation, the fourth annual William & Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar, the release of issue 007 of Seen, the second annual BlackStar Luminary Gala, a curated film series in collaboration with the Barnes Foundation and Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the 13th edition of BlackStar Film Festival which included 96 films and attracted record ticket sales.

Photo by Daniel Jackson.

BlackStar Film Festival

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Suzanne Roberts Theatre
The Wilma Theater
July 31-August 3, 2025

BlackStar Projects is thrilled to announce the 2025 BlackStar Film Festival and submission dates. This year’s festival will take place from July 31-August 3, 2025 across three venues all on Broad Street in center city Philadelphia – The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Suzanne Roberts Theater and the Wilma Theater. The majority of films will also be available to stream online.

Film submissions are now open through April 1, with an early submission deadline of February 1 and a preferred submission deadline of March 1. All accepted filmmakers will receive a screening fee and a travel stipend. BlackStar Pitch, a live pitch competition for short non-fiction projects, will return for its sixth year with a $75k prize for the winning project and $25k prize for the runner up. Pitch submissions will open later this year.

In 2024, MovieMaker Magazine named BlackStar Film Festival one of the 50 film festivals worth the entry fee and the festival ranked among the top 5 most accessible festivals in the world according to the Accessibility Scorecard Impact Report. Check out last year’s festival recap video here!

Raven Jackson presents director’s commentary on her film All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt with BlackStar CCO Imran Siddiquee at the 2024 Seminar. Photo by Biak Tha Hlawn.

William & Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar

Stanford University
March 7-9, 2025

Named after the visionary filmmakers who together co-produced landmark documentaries such as Symbiopsychotaxiplasm and Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey, the William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar is a gathering for Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists working in cinematic realms. At the fifth edition, hosted in collaboration with the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University, participants can expect to explore the technical and creative aspects of media-making, while having honest conversations about the successes and pitfalls of their work. The Seminar will feature workshops, panels, film screenings and more, with the full program to be announced. Registration is now open and closes February 13.

BlackStar Love + Time

BlackStar Love + Time, a series of curated screenings co-presented with the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, will host its closing event at each venue this month.

Still from One Magenta Afternoon (2022) directed by Vernon Jordan III.

Barnes Foundation
January 11, 2025, 2PM

On January 11, coinciding with the Barnes Foundation’s presentation of Mickalene Thomas: All About Love, the theme of “Kinship” is brought into focus through a series of shorts, including Mickalene Thomas’ directorial debut Happy Birthday to a Beautiful Woman. The series of films posit the idea that what is past is also present and celebrate the art created by Black people across time. The screenings will be followed by a Q&A with some of the featured filmmakers, moderated by James Claiborne, the Barnes Foundation’s Deputy Director for Community Engagement. Tickets are available here.

Still from Naked Acts, 1996. Courtesy Milestone Films.

Philadelphia Museum of Art
January 12, 1PM

On January 12, coinciding with the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s exhibition The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, the nuance and richness of Black contemporary life is explored with a special screening of Bridgett M. Davis’ Naked Acts (1996). Celebrated as a key film in the canon of independent cinema by African Americans in the 1990s, Naked Acts was included in S. Torriano Berry’s seminal anthology The 50 Most Influential Black Films. The screening will be followed by a conversation between Davis and Niela Orr. Registration is available here.

About BlackStar Projects

BlackStar Projects is a non-profit organization, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival. They have since expanded into year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, the annual film festival, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab, and a journal of visual culture.

These programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders, and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.

Last August, BlackStar celebrated the 13th edition of BlackStar Film Festival, which featured a lineup of 96 films from more than 40 countries, including 16 world premieres, 16 North American premieres, and 10 United States premieres. The world-renowned four-day event, which also features artist panels, parties, and networking opportunities for filmmakers, saw record-breaking ticket sales last year.

For press inquires please contact ALMA, hannah@almacommunications.co

8 January, 2025
Now On Sale: BlackStar Projects’ Seen Issue 007

BlackStar is thrilled to announce that the seventh issue of Seen – the organization’s bi-annual journal of film and visual culture, dedicated to platforming nuanced and rigorous writing by and about Black, Brown and Indigenous communities globally – is now on sale. The issue is available for order here.

Seen 007 is guest edited by filmmaker, multidisciplinary artist and BlackStar Film Festival alum, Ja’Tovia Gary, who shared:

To me, being seen means recognition and incorporation, the responsibility of which belongs to those with whom we are in community…seeing and being seen requires the audacity to claim the role of narrator, to be the one who defines. Recognition and incorporation by those that matter is an act of self determination. We look in the mirror to be seen just as we look into the eyes of our beloved for our reflection.

Ja’Tovia Gary, Letter from the Editor

Ja’Tovia Gary for Seen. Photo by Giancarlo Valentine.

The release coincides with a special partnership between Seen and american grammar, a multifaceted space that cultivates creativity, conversation and community through coffee, books, art, events and community programming located in Kensington, Philadelphia. In celebration of issue 007, Gary and contributor Joy James have curated a selection of books available at the store.

In addition to american grammar, Seen 007 is on sale at stockists around the world including Amant, CARA, Interesting Books + Zines, Issues Magazine Shop, Mag Culture Shop, New Museum, Now Instant LA, Omoi Zakka, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Printworks, Reparations Club, Skylight Books, Thayer and Washington Project for the Arts.

Seen 007 features a mix of conversations, profiles, interviews, essays and reviews, including A Love Ethic for the End of the World, a conversation between Ja’Tovia Gary and Dr. Joy James; J Wortham’s Finding Hope In the World Anew, a conversation between Wortham and first generation Palestinian writer, Zania Arafat about witnessing Gaza through social media, becoming a mother and why writing sustains her; Bridgett M. Davis’ Naked Acts Now, an essay reflecting on the second life of her 1996 debut feature film; Hanna Phifer’s Bride on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a review of Tayarisha Poe’s The Young Wife; Notes of Influence highlighting the work and practices of artists Hugh Hayden and Charisse Weston; and Dr. Lamonda H. Stallings’ Crafting Intimacy, on the work of intimacy coordination as a decolonial and de-westernizing mission.

Other key contributors include Kaitlyn Greenidge, Anisia Uzeyman, Robert Pruitt, Heidi Saman, Kelli Weston, Meghana Kandlur, Jomo Fray, Shannon Baker Davis, Terilyn Shropshire, Louis Massiah, Amarie Gipson, Jasmin Hernandez and Yasmine El Rashidi.

On October 29, 2024, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, BlackStar will celebrate the release of Seen 007 with a launch event and conversation between Ja’Tovia Gary and Bridgett M. Davis. The two will dive deep into Davis’ work, exploring a variety of themes, including on screen depictions of Black bodies, sexuality, and intimacy coordination.⁠ The conversation will be followed by a reception in the museum.

Later this fall, BlackStar will co-present a series of curated screenings at the Barnes Foundation to coincide with the new exhibition, Mickalene Thomas: All About Love, and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to coincide with group exhibition The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure. More information and the full schedule of curated screenings will be released in coming weeks.

Seen 007 is supported by a grant from Critical Minded and the National Endowment for the Arts and printed in Canada by Hemlock Printers. BlackStar Projects and its year-round programs are generously supported by Ford Foundation/Just Films, Independence Public Media Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Mighty Arrow Family Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Perspective Fund, The Philadelphia Foundation, PopCulture Collaborative, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation and Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners, and a host of generous individual donors and organizations. Invaluable support is provided by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.

About BlackStar Projects
BlackStar Projects is a non-profit organization, founded in 2012 by Maori Karmael Holmes as BlackStar Film Festival. They have since expanded into year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, the annual film festival, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab, and a journal of visual culture.

The organization creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. Their programs provide artists opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders, and distributors. BlackStar is working towards a liberatory world in which a vast spectrum of Black, Brown and Indigenous experiences is irresistibly celebrated in arts and culture.

This August, BlackStar celebrated the 13th edition of BlackStar Film Festival, which featured a lineup of 96 films from more than 40 countries, including 16 world premieres, 16 North American premieres, and 10 United States premieres. The world-renowned four-day event, which also features artist panels, parties, and networking opportunities for filmmakers, saw record-breaking ticket sales this year.

17 October, 2024
BlackStar Projects Announces 2024 Luminary Gala

BlackStar Projects is pleased to announce its 2024 Luminary Gala, honoring New Negress Film Society and multifaceted artists and filmmakers Tourmaline, Annemarie Jacir and Louis Massiah. The gala will take place on December 3, 2024 at Switch House in Philadelphia from 6-11PM. Ticketing and sponsorship information is available here.

First held in 2023, the Luminary Gala is an unforgettable evening in celebration of the luminaries shaping and shifting the arts, culture and media landscape; bringing together artists, philanthropists and BlackStar’s community of friends to shine a light on the organization’s work and garner support for BlackStar’s suite of year-round cultural programming that provides Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists with the resources, support, and shine they need to thrive.

The Luminary Awards honor individuals and collectives for their contributions as artists and cultural workers. This year’s awardees display a commitment to social justice, embracing collaboration and celebrating a wide spectrum of aesthetics and storytelling practices. The 2024 honorees also reflect BlackStar’s mission – New Negress Film Society, as a collective of Black women and non-binary filmmakers focusing on making and showcasing work that breaks boundaries in film politically and artistically; Tourmaline as an artist, filmmaker, writer and activist whose practice highlights the experiences of Black, queer and trans communities and their capacity to impact the world; Annemarie Jacir as a writer, director and producer who’s laid the groundwork for Palestinian artists to have greater platforms for their cinema globally; and Louis Massiah as a documentary filmmaker and community activist working with Philadelphians to develop filmmaking skills and get access to resources to author their own stories.

TICKETS ON SALE

The evening will feature performances by Melanie Charles, a genre-bending musical artist who experiments with dynamic engagements with jazz, soul and R&B, along with an after-party that will include desserts and dancing.

The Luminary Gala is a microcosm of BlackStar’s multiplicity, an intentional community building moment, connecting its profound, diverse audience in a Black-led space centered on joy and thriving. Sponsors and contributors will be directly investing in the sustainability of BlackStar’s efforts to rectify systemic imbalances in the media arts and beyond and support the mission of amplifying the moving image as a transformative tool for social change.

The Luminary Gala Host Committee includes Adjoa Jones de Almeida, Andre Carroll, Andre Robert Lee, Bill Adair, Dana Gills, Deesha Philyaw, Dyana Williams, Ernest Owens, Irit Reinheimer, James Claiborne, Jenny Raskin, Kyle Easley, Lauren Holland, Marcel Pratt, Nikil Saval, Nuala Cabral, Rachel Branson, Rakia Reynolds, Raymond Perkins, Reggie Brown and Tina Farris.

BlackStar Projects and its year-round programs are generously supported by Critical Minded, Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Independence Public Media Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, McLean Contributionship, Mellon Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Perspective Fund, The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures, Pop Culture Collaborative, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, Samuel S. Fels Fund, Surdna Foundation, Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation, in addition to its board of directors, community partners, and a host of generous individual donors and organizations.

ABOUT THE HONOREES

New Negress Film Society was founded in 2013 by Kumi James (formerly Wendy James) in response to her observation that the films and critical interventions made by Black women filmmakers were seldom highlighted or discussed in public and private institutions. In May 2013, James organized a screening called I Am A Negress of Noteworthy Talent showcasing the works of Nevline Nnaji, Nikyatu Jusu, Nuotama Bodomo, Ja’Tovia Gary and herself and then convened the screening’s participants to form New Negress Film Society in June 2013 with Nevline Nnaji, Nuotama Bodomo and Ja’Tovia Gary and herself as its founding members. BlackStar remains inspired by New Negress Film Society’s focus on political thought and recognition of the importance of collective strength. Stefani Saintonge and Yvonne Michelle Shirley will accept the award on behalf of New Negress Film Society.

Stefani Saintonge is a filmmaker and editor who won the juried and audience awards at BlackStar Film Festival for her short film, Fucked Like a Star. Her work has screened internationally at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival and Hammer Museum among others. As an editor, Saintonge has collaborated with renowned artists such as Simone Leigh, Bradford Young and Julie Dash and her edited works have screened at Sundance, Berlinale, Tribeca, Guggenheim and PBS. As a member of New Negress Film Society, she co-created the Black Women’s Film Conference and has received support from Ford Foundation, SFFILM and Jerome Foundation.

Yvonne Michelle Shirley is a filmmaker and the executive director of the Community Media Center at Express Newark, a socially engaged art center at Rutgers University, Newark. Her work as a director and producer has screened at festivals including BlackStar Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Slamdance and Tribeca Film Festival and she has directed projects for T Magazine, Nike, AFROPUNK and TOPIC.

Tourmaline is an artist, filmmaker, writer, and activist whose practice highlights the experiences of Black, queer, and trans communities in her films and photographs. Tourmaline has had solo exhibitions at MUDAM and Chapter NY and her work has also been presented within significant group exhibitions such as the 2024 Whitney Biennial, Acts of Resilience at South London Gallery, Artist and Society at Tate Modern; the 2022 Venice Biennale; Mountain/Time at Aspen Art Museum; Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Slipstream: Reflection, Resilience, and Resistance in the Art of Our Time at the Bronx Museum and Critical Fabulations at MoMA. Tourmaline’s work is included in the permanent collections of MUDAM, Brooklyn Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum, LACMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Tate Modern and the Whitney Museum of American Art. BlackStar honors Tourmaline’s work rewriting mainstream narratives and cultural histories to imagine a more liberatory future and reconsider what’s possible.

Annemarie Jacir has written, directed and produced over sixteen films with premieres in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Locarno and Toronto. All three of Jacir’s feature films have been selected as Palestine’s Oscar Entry for Foreign Language Film. In 2007, she shot the first feature film by a Palestinian woman director, the acclaimed Salt of this Sea, Jacir’s second film to debut in Cannes Film Festival, which went on to win the FIPRESCI Critics Award and garnered fourteen other international awards. Jacir is the Founder of Philistine Films, an independent production company focusing on productions related to the Arab world and has paved the way for Arab filmmakers to pursue careers in film, co-founder of Dreams of a Nation, a Columbia University based film project committed to the preservation and promotion of Palestinian cinema and the co-founder of the artist run Dar Jacir for Art & Research, a multi-faceted project devoted to educational, cultural and agricultural activities in her hometown of Bethlehem. BlackStar honors Jacir as a pioneer whose work inspires us to ask questions, exchange ideas, to dream and invites discourse around urgent human rights issues.

Louis Massiah is a documentary filmmaker and community activist committed to sharing his passion for film to make the medium more accessible for aspiring local filmmakers. In 1982, Massiah founded the Scribe Video Center, a Philadelphia non-profit organization which explores, develops and advances the use of electronic media as a tool for social change and to document contemporary concerns and events. Massiah’s documentaries include The Bombing of Osage Avenue and W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices. He’s been a visiting professor/artist at Swarthmore, Princeton, UPenn and Howard, named a MacArthur “genius award” fellow and is currently AD White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. BlackStar honors Massiah as a visionary filmmaker invested in community and for building a participatory platform for those interested in making work towards a higher, more civilized humanity.

10 September, 2024
BlackStar Film Festival 2024 Flourishes

BlackStar Projects, the premier organization celebrating visionary Black, Brown and Indigenous film and media artists celebrated its 13th annual film festival this past weekend and is proud to announce the jury and audience award winners.

The 2024 edition of the festival continued to push boundaries by spotlighting genre-defying films and hosting ground-breaking conversations with an expansive community of indie filmmakers, artists, panelists and festival goers, all of whom met the moment with enthusiasm as this year’s festival welcomed thousands of attendees and record-breaking sales, including a sold out opening night world premiere of Shatara Michelle Ford’s Dreams in Nightmares.

From the 96 films screened, juried awards were given to Songs from the Hole, directed by Contessa Gayles, for Best Feature Documentary, After the Long Rains, directed by Damien Hauser, for Best Feature Narrative, Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?), directed by Suneil Sanzgiri, for Best Experimental, And Still, It Remains, directed by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah, for Best Short Documentary and Boat People, directed by Al’Ikens Plancher, for Best Short Narrative. The Philadelphia Filmmaker Award was given to Expanding Sanctuary, directed by Kristal Sotomayor and the second annual Center for Cultural Power’s Climate Change Award went to Bring Them Home, directed by Daniel Glick, Ivan MacDonald and Ivy MacDonald.

‘To be honored by BlackStar, [who] are really about honoring work that is pushing the genre…and decolonizing our storytelling practices, it means a lot,’ said director Contessa Gayles, in accepting her award for Best Feature Documentary.

In collaboration with Blackbird, BlackStar hosted the fourth annual BlackStar Pitch at the festival and announced the winner as Highways, a forthcoming project from filmmaker Zeshawn Ali. Nausheen Dadabhoy’s Halal Bodies was selected as the pitch runner-up. Ali’s team will receive $75,000, mentorship from Multitude Films and other benefits, while Dadabhoy’s production will receive $25,000.

Winners were announced at the annual Director’s Brunch and Awards Ceremony, a cornerstone moment co-presented by The Gotham Film & Media Institute, celebrating all of the festival’s directors. This year Telfar generously provided gifts and filmmakers enjoyed an exclusive coffee blend brewed in collaboration with Philadelphia roaster Win Win.

BlackStar also invited its audience to select awards in Favorite Feature Narrative (Inky Pinky Ponky – the Odd One Out), Favorite Feature Documentary (You Don’t Have to Go Home, But…), Favorite Short Narrative (Burnt Milk), Favorite Short Documentary (Planetwalker formerly known as A Symphony of Tiny Lights) and Favorite Experimental (Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?)) categories. More information on the award winning films from all categories is below.

The BlackStar panel series saw audiences overflow from The Daily Jawn Stage presented by NEON, with panelists and moderators engaging in lively conversation, inviting global perspectives and challenging dialogues on various topics, including Media-Making in The Time of Genocide, Duty of Care and Black on The Internet. Additional set decor for the stage was provided by Walter Pine Floral Studio.

BlackStar also unveiled the next cover of Seen, its bi-annual journal of film and visual culture and announced filmmaker, multidisciplinary artist and BlackStar film festival alumni, Ja’Tovia Gary as the guest editor of the journal’s 7th edition. The issue will be released in October and is now available for pre-order here.

Additionally, in partnership with Points North Institute, BlackStar announced the 2024 North Star Fellows: Lokotah Sanborn, Imani Dennison, Zac Manuel and Rea Tajiri and with lead sponsor Black Experience on Xfinity, named Andrew Bilindabagabo, Kristal Sotomayor, Chisom Chieke, Walé Oyéjidé as the 2025 Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab Fellows. These fellowships and the Pitch competition demonstrate BlackStar’s ongoing commitment to providing artists of color opportunities to create genre defying work.

Beyond film, the festival’s activation of the city provided wonderful opportunities for artists, filmmakers and film enthusiasts to engage at sold out parties and events throughout the weekend.

Notable festival guests included Denée Benton, Shatara Michelle Ford, Zeba Blay, dream hampton, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Tayarisha Poe, Staceyann Chin, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and Bashir Salahuddin, among others. BlackStar thanks its major supporters Open Society Foundations and Black Experience on Xfinity.

Jury Awards

Best Feature Documentary

Songs From the Hole directed by Contessa Gayles

Songs From the Hole had the entire feature documentary jury in tears, selected for its layered approach to interrogating harm while skillfully centering participant collaboration and emotional justice. It’s a film that creatively inspired the filmmakers on this jury with its quiet beauty, artistry and redemptive arc; It’s a film that took strength and harbored wisdom, while managing to play with form and function.

Short Narrative

Boat People directed by Al’Ikens Plancher

Boat People is a short and strikingly minimalist film that covers historical ground and probes imagination in a swift, but unrushed matter of minutes. From the acting and cinematography to the design and lighting, it shifts the expected cinematic gaze. With little dialogue and much suggestion, the film takes us on a journey with a lead character who embodies resistance through silent yet potent gestures of refusal.

Experimental Film

Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?) directed by Suneil Sanzgiri

Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?) mixes different film strategies to tell an impeccably well-researched story. It’s thoughtful and potent, managing to deal cohesively with blurred temporalities and mixed geographies while maintaining the clarity of the director’s voice. This film is an embodied work that is sensorial and textured.

Feature Narrative

After the Long Rains directed by Damien Hauser

After the Long Rains was described by the jury as ‘sumptuous’ and ‘delicious.’ With divine cinematography and brilliant editing, this warm and textured film captures the intricacies of this African family’s life while being everybody’s story and honors the specifics of a child’s perspective through beautiful storytelling.

Short Documentary

And Still, It Remains directed by Arwa Aburawa and Turab Shah

Through durational and carefully-constructed cinematography, And Still, It Remains highlights the contrast between a land and the people living on it. The filmmakers reimpose a narrative of abundance and theft on this landscape and offer a dialogue between what we see and what we hear. Even the captions enhance the story as this film is a testament to making film more universally accessible.

Philadelphia Filmmaker Award

Expanding Sanctuary directed by Kristal Sotomayor

Expanding Sanctuary is an intimate and endearing film that beautifully portrays the power of immigrant communities and how organizing together can create a sense of belonging and real wins toward social change.

Center for Cultural Power’s Climate Change Award

Bring Them Home directed by Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald and Daniel Glick

Bring The Home cements Indigenous storytelling as a climate solution. At a time when our planet is on fire, it’s critical that we recognize that the climate crisis started with colonialism and that Indigenous storytellers help us confront, acknowledge and mourn what was lost, as well as to decolonize our imagination around climate solutions.

Audience Awards

Favorite Feature Narrative

Inky Pinky Ponky – the Odd One Out directed by Damon Fepule’ai & Ramon Te Wake

Favorite Feature Documentary

You Don’t Have to Go Home, But… directed by Aidan Un

Favorite Short Narrative

Burnt Milk directed by Joseph Douglas Elmhirst

Favorite Short Documentary

Planetwalker (A Symphony of Tiny Lights) directed by Dominic Gill and Nadia Gill

Favorite Experimental

Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?) directed by Suneil Sanzgiri

Shine Award

The Whites of Our Eyes directed by Maame Adjei and Yaba Blay

BlackStar Pitch

Winner — Highways directed by Zeshawn Ali, produced by Aman Ali.

Highways tells the story of a truck stop in the midwest which has become a hub for immigrant cross- country truck drivers. Through an observational lens, this film follows these men as they build lives in this new country and try to find home on the open roads.

Runner-up — Halal Bodies directed by Nausheen Dadabhoy, produced by Heba Elorbany.

Do Muslim American parents have a sex talk with their kids? And if they don’t, how do young Muslims learn about sex, relationships, intimacy and their own sexual identities?

Major support for the festival was provided by the Open Society Foundations and Black Experience on Xfinity.

Additional support for the festival provided by: AmericanDocumentary/POV, American Friends Service Committee, Andscape, Annenberg School for Communication at University of Pennsylvania, Black Public Media, The Center for Cultural Power, Color Congress, Creative Artists Agency, Critical Minded, Documentary.org, Drexel University Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, Eventive, Firelight Media, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, International Documentary Association, Impact Partners, Indego, ITVS, Kashif, NEON, NeueHouse, Peace Is Loud, PECO, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development, Philadelphia Foundation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Points North Institute, PNC Arts Alive, Runway, Soho House, StoryCorps, Temple University School of Theater, Film and Media Arts, University of Pennsylvania Department of Cinema & Media Studies, Visit Philadelphia, Walter Pine Floral Studio, Win Win Coffee, WORLD, WHYY and WURD.

5 August, 2024

Category: Press Release

Jury Awards

Audience Awards

Special Awards

BlackStar Film Festival

William & Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar

BlackStar Love + Time

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