6th Annual American Black Film Festival Moves to Miami

Event Formerly Held in Acapulco Relocates Domestically

New York – The 6th annual American Black Film Festival (ABFF) will be held June 26 – 30 in South Beach, Miami, Florida, it was announced today by Byron Lewis Sr., Chairman and CEO of UniWorld Group Inc. and Jeff Friday, President and CEO of Film Life Inc. and ABFF Director. The highly acclaimed event supporting the independent Black filmmaking community has been held in Acapulco, Mexico for the past five years.

At the same time, ABFF announced a call for submissions. The deadline for entries is April 5 for Short Films and April 19 for Feature Length Films.

Founded in 1997 by Byron Lewis Sr., the American Black Film Festival is presented jointly by UniWorld Group Inc. and December Ventures.

Home Box Office is the founding sponsor of the event and presenter of the Short Film competition. Lincoln is again a platinum sponsor and will this year present the Lincoln Filmmaker Trophy for a Feature Length Film. Additional top-tier sponsors will be announced shortly.

“As we strive toward making the American Black Film Festival one of the premier industry events, we determined a domestic location would encourage greater participation, help us attract a multi-cultural audience, provide state-of-the-art facilities, and build stronger alliances with Hollywood film studios,” Friday said in his announcement.

With the mission of redefining, discovering and honoring artistic excellence in Black cinema, ABFF provides an unprecedented platform for Black filmmakers and now attracts an annual attendance of more than 1500 people. The five-day Festival includes competitive film showcases, in feature film and short film categories, workshops, and panel discussions. Participants and honorees in the past five years have included Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman. John Singleton, Pam Grier, Debbie Allen, Robert Townsend and Suzanne de Passe.