Film Submissions Now Open for 2018 AMERICAN BLACK FILM FESTIVAL

The 22nd annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) returns to Miami from June 13-17, 2018 and continues to showcase quality film and television content by and about people of African descent. ABFF founder Jeff Friday, created the festival in 1997 as a means to channel diverse talent directly into Hollywood, inspired by the belief that Black artists and content creators deserve the same opportunities as their mainstream counterparts. HBO® is the founding sponsor of the festival.

Film submissions are open and, for the first time in the festival's history, the cash prizes awarded across the four competitive film categories will top $100,000, affording the winning filmmakers the opportunity to continue creating content.

Festival attendees will have their choice of over seventy programs and events, including celebrity talks, panels, master classes, spotlight screenings and laser talks, in addition to screenings in four competitive categories: Narrative Features, Documentary Features, Web Series and Short Films. A distinguished panel of jurors, who will be announced, at a later date will determine the winners. Actor Jay Ellis will serve as the 2018 ABFF Celebrity Ambassador.

Below is the list of awards for each category. For complete submission criteria and eligibility visit www.abff.com/submissions.

Narrative Features:

• Best Narrative Feature $25,000 cash award
• Best Director, Narrative Feature $25,000 cash award

Documentaries:

• Best Documentary Feature $10,000 cash award

Short Films:

• HBO® Short Film Award $30,000 total cash awards

Web Series:

• Best Web Series $10,000 cash award

The ABFF Comedy Wings Competition was created to showcase talented, yet undiscovered comedians and introduce them to the industry at large. Up to five finalists will be flown to the 2018 ABFF in June to perform before a panel of esteemed judges, where one will be crowned the winner and receive a $5,000 cash prize along with the opportunity to meet with an HBO comedy executive. Comedy Wings submission deadline is January 15, 2018.

ABFF remains committed to introducing emerging content creators of African descent to the industry at large and is recognized as one of the leading film festivals in the world. Festival passes are on sale now at www.abff.com, and offer three different levels of access to festival events. Questions regarding registration may be directed to info@abffventures.com.

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