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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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