BlackStar Projects is proud to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the BlackStar Film Festival in 2026, marking a major milestone for the organization and the community it has built over the past decade and a half. The film festival is an annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and of global Indigenous communities. Showcasing films by Black, Brown and Indigenous artists from around the world, the film festival has become a lodestar not only for them, but for the industry as a whole. Through its robust and diverse slate of screenings and programming, the festival has solidified itself as a critically important part of film discourse and distribution, all while creating a Black-led space centered on joy and collective thriving.
The BlackStar Film Festival emerged in 2012 during a time of renewed emphasis on the history of Black film just as a spotlight was being placed on new independent Black filmmakers, such as Ava DuVernay, Bradford Young, Dee Rees and Tina Mabry, among others. BlackStar Film Festival was created to provide a platform for contemporary filmmakers to showcase their work alongside the reappraisal of historically significant works, many of which would have restorations debut at the festival. Beyond film, the festival’s consistent activation of the city of Philadelphia provided vital opportunities for artists, filmmakers, industry professionals and film enthusiasts to engage with each other and forge meaningful connections. This communal aspect has become as essential as the screening of films.
Over the past fourteen years the festival has welcomed countless visionary directors to premier films while also bringing in notable writers and critics as well. Alumni of the BlackStar Film Festival include Garrett Bradley, Charles Burnett, Julie Dash, Ava DuVernay, Ja’Tovia Gary, Haile Gerima, Arthur Jafa, Kahlil Joseph, Marc Lamont Hill, Andre Holland, Spike Lee, Louis Massiah, Terence Nance, Jenn Nkiru, Suneil Sanzgiri, Rea Tajiri, Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson, Tariq ‘Black Thought’ Trotter, Michael K. Williams, Saul Williams and Bradford Young, among many others.
“In our fifteenth year, it’s important to take stock of all that the BlackStar Film Festival has achieved so far—all that it has become and what it means to the community of artists and filmmakers of color that have invested their time and creativity over the years,” said BlackStar Founder, Chief Executive & Artistic Officer, Maori Karmael Holmes. “The festival has always been a home for Black, Brown and Indigenous artists from around the world, particularly when that support and community has been more needed than ever. In addition to being an event where historical and contemporary films can be seen, discussed and debated, the festival has, perhaps just as importantly, become a form of necessary resistance.”
Submissions to the 15th annual BlackStar Film Festival, held from August 6-9, 2026, are now open: link. Early bird tickets will be available in May.
Upcoming Events
From Saints to Sinners: 100 Years of Black Fashion in Cinema
February 1–23, 2026
Philadelphia Navy Yard
BlackStar Projects, in collaboration with URBN, parent company of Anthropologie, Free People, Nuuly and Urban Outfitters, will unveil a new mural at URBN’s headquarters at Philadelphia’s Navy Yard, celebrating the history of costume design in Black Cinema. For the last 100 years there has been a progression of Black representation in film in every role in front of and behind the camera. This mural focuses on costumes and style in American films by selecting one iconic costume or character from each decade, which will then be illustrated as if it were a costume rendering.
Screening of TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing
Vidiots, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd, Los Angeles, CA
February 11, 2026 | 7-9PM
Featuring Q&A with Director Louis Massiah and Courtney R. Baker
Tickets available here: link
Author, educator, activist and documentary filmmaker Toni Cade Bambara, with humor and deep insight, inspired a generation of artists to dedicate themselves to community empowerment. Editor of the breakthrough anthology The Black Woman (1970) and author of The Salt Eaters (1980) among other acclaimed works, Bambara came to Philadelphia and worked with Louis Massiah on the truth-telling documentaries The Bombing of Osage Avenue (1986) and W.E.B. DuBois in Four Voices (1996) and remained an activist, educator and cultural worker in film and literature until her untimely death in 1995. TCB – The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing (2025) is a testament to their long and generative collaboration.
Massiah’s film, directed with and edited by Monica Henriquez, is structured as a series of lessons on cultural organizing, gleaned from Bambara’s life and shared by her friends, colleagues and students. Not yet widely released, the film received its world premiere opening night at BlackStar Film Festival in August, where it was awarded Best Feature Documentary by the jury, voted Favorite Feature Documentary by the audience, and called “riveting” by Variety. Featuring: Toni Morrison, Nikky Finney, Haile Gerima, Shirikiana Aina, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Manthia Diawara, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Malaika Adero, Linda Holmes, Conor Tomás Reed, Makeba Lavan and Clyde Taylor.
Seen Issue 009 Celebration in Los Angeles
Reparations Club 3054 S Victoria Ave, Los Angeles, CA
February 12, 2026 | 7-9PM
BlackStar will celebrate 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—with a panel discussion featuring Darol Olu Kae, Maya S. Cade and Jenny Yang in conversation.
Seen 009 features contributions from André Holland, Murtada Elfadl, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Yance Ford, Sanford Biggers, Maya S. Cade, Darol Olu Kae, Bedatri Datta Choudhury, Eman Mohammed, Kambole Campbell, Nicole G. Young and more.
William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar at Stanford University
March 6, 2026–March 8, 2026
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA
Register here through February 13
BlackStar is proud to present the sixth annual William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar, a gathering for Black, Brown and Indigenous artists working in cinematic realms, hosted in partnership with the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University. Participants will explore the technical and creative aspects of media-making, while having honest conversations about the successes and pitfalls of their work. The seminar considers the intersection of cinema and visual arts and is exclusively designed for people of color to focus and not manage the added burden of representation.
The Seminar is named after visionary filmmakers William and Louise Greaves, who together co-produced landmark documentaries such as Symbiopsychotaxiplasm and Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey.
Seminar Speakers
Keynote Address: Michèle Stephenson
Director’s Commentary: Cherien Dabis
Short Film Program: Maya S. Cade
Work In Progress: Lendl Tellington
Producer’s Commentary: Onye Anyanwu
Artist Talk: Chinaka Hodge
Iran, The Plot of a Cinematic Resistance: Homa Sarabi, Yasaman Baghban
The Devil Finds Work: James Baldwin’s Cinema of the Mind: Beandrea July, Kendale Winbush
The Image That Eludes the Conscious Mind: Tenzin Phuntsog
Impact Producing Through A Disability Justice Lens: Rosemary McDonnell-Horita, xana lenore
Cinematic Aliveness: How to Edit like a DJ: Rashid Zakat
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.
