BlackStar Film Festival 2024
The 2024 BlackStar Film Festival was electric! Thank you for joining us for four days of films, conversations, community, and connection. 💛 We can’t wait to do it again next year!
A quick reminder to take a moment to complete our Audience Survey, if you haven’t yet! Your responses help us secure more funding to continue to move more money to artists, and provide a guide for next year’s events. Responses close this Sunday, September 15: https://blackstar.formstack.com/forms/audience
#BSFF24 #ByIndieMeansNecessary
A huge congratulations goes out to the winners of our 2024 BlackStar Film Festival Jury Awards and the BlackStar Pitch!
“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 Contessa Gayles, director of SONGS FROM THE HOLE. “We made this film for all of our collective liberation, and we hope that our offering in that department helps us all get a little bit more free.”
The winners include:
Best Feature Documentary
Songs From the Hole
dir. Contessa Gayles
Best Short Narrative
Boat People
dir. Al'Ikens Plancher
Best Experimental Film
Two Refusals (Would We Recognize Ourselves Unbroken?)
dir. Suneil Sanzgiri
Best Feature Narrative
After the Long Rains
dir. Damien Hauser
Best Short Documentary
And Still, It Remains
dirs. Arwa Aburawa & Turab Shah
Philadelphia Filmmaker Award
EXPANDING SANCTUARY, dir. Kristal Sotomayor
The Center for Cultural Power’s Climate Change Award
BRING THEM HOME dir. Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald and Daniel Glick
BlackStar Pitch Winner
HIGHWAYS, dir. Zeshawn Ali
BlackStar Pitch Runner-up
HALAL BODIES, dir. Nausheen Dadabhoy
Thank you to The Gotham for co-presenting the 2024 Director’s Brunch & Award Ceremony.
Discover indie film from the global majority at the 2024 BlackStar Film Festival! We’re screening over 90 films from 40 countries, here’s a snapshot of the incredible stories that you can expect to see.✨
Check out the full schedule at blackstarfest.org/festival, and start planning your festival experience! Tickets are available for screenings, panels, parties, and special events. Or purchase an All Access or Virtual Pass so you don’t miss a moment.
Seminar registration closes in two weeks on February 9! Secure your spot via blackstarfest.org/seminar.
Gather and connect with fellow artists, scholars, cultural workers and filmmakers for a one-of-a-kind seminar exploring the technical and creative aspects of media-making! The Seminar presents numerous opportunities for individuals working in film and media arts to share and receive feedback on works-in-progress, network and explore emerging storytelling models.
We hope you join us in Palo Alto, California from March 8-10.
The Seminar is hosted in partnership with the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford with additional support from the Center for Cultural Power.
The sixth edition of our journal, Seen, is out now!
Featuring: Colman Domingo, Lily Gladstone, Charles Gaines, Danielle Deadwyler, James Ijames, Abigail Lucien, Ja'Tovia Gary, and more.
Order your copy and find a full list of stockists on seenjournal.org
“Beautiful, beautiful time filled with community and love and creativity!” - Ja’Tovia Gary
Thank you, thank you to everyone who joined us at our 12th annual BlackStar Film Festival! ❤️
This year marked one of our biggest festivals yet with virtual and in-person screenings across three venues along South Broad street, over 90 films from 31 countries, with 19 making their world premieres and 47 making their Philadelphia debut.
Relive all the feels from this year’s fest and (re)watch our thought-provoking panels and recaps from The Daily Jawn Stage via our YouTube channel. Plus, we still have a limited amount festival gear available at our online shop: shop.blackstarfest.org.
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Recap Video produced by Passerine
Still photos by Daniel Jackson
#BSFF23 #ByIndieMeansNecessary
Happy BlackStar Day! We’re doing the The Daily Jawn stage a little differently this year. Stop by the Kimmel Center to check out D’Lo’s interview with “La Lucha” dir. Violeta Ayala @ 10:30AM. #BlackStarOnBroad #BSFF23
2022 BlackStar Film Festival