Now celebrating its 28th year, the American Black Film Festival remains the preeminent event of its kind, empowering Black artists and spotlighting a diverse array of entertainment content created by and for individuals of African descent. An event like no other, the festival brings together enthusiasts of Black culture alongside industry executives and content creators from across the globe for five days filled with screenings, engaging talk events, exclusive parties, and invaluable networking opportunities.
Join us live in sunny South Beach from June 12-16 for an unforgettable experience, followed by our online segment streaming on ABFF PLAY from June 17-24.
ABFF SINCE 1997
Our Legacy
The ABFF has earned global acclaim for its profound impact on the entertainment industry. Over the span of nearly three decades, the festival has served as a vital platform for Black artists, offering them pathways to success within Hollywood and beyond.
Through an array of talent showcases ad pipelines programs, the ABFF has provided unparalleled support to countless actors, writers, and directors, guiding their careers and introducing them to the broader industry landscape, often when they were still relatively unknown. As a result, the festival stands as a beacon of opportunity, empowering diverse voices and reshaping the narrative of representation in film and television.
The director touches on the actress’ possible return and his passion for telling Black stories through the upcoming limited series.
The Best Man: Final Chapters is finally making a return to the small screen. Its first official teaser is out, and the beloved Black cinema franchise will premiere this winter. Malcolm D. Lee has returned to the director’s chair alongside the film’s original cast of the inaugural 1999 film. Actors Morris Chestnut, Melissa De Sousa, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long, and Harold Perrineau will all reprise their roles, except Monica Calhoun — whose character, Mia Morgan, died of cancer in The Best Man‘s 2013 sequel.
“We all love Monica Calhoun,” Lee exclusively told VIBE during a private screening of episode one. “But when we were getting set to make this, it was like, ‘Well, that’s how it has to be.’ She may make an appearance in the Final Chapters. We’ll see. But we all love Monica. I loved working with her. She’s a great actress and really was the key to getting people emotional aboutBest Man Holiday.“
Back in 2014, it was announced that a third installment of the movie franchise would be hitting theaters. The Best Man Wedding was set to arrive in 2016, but due to scheduling conflicts around Lee’s other film projects, it never made its way into production.
“I think it’s twofold,” Lee said. “It’s both artistic and about commerce because we couldn’t get a movie together with the budget that we really needed, and it was hard to get everybody’s schedules. And so what the series allows us to do is just to allow them to chew more scenery and tell us some unfinished stories. So those are the main things that I think are really good about making it more than just a two-hour movie.” The Best Man: Final Chapters will follow the evolved cast as they experience new relationship challenges, reoccurring grievances, and life-changing decisions. Lee serves as the creator, executive producer, and co-showrunner alongside Dayna Lynn North.
North served as executive producer and writer for the HBO hit series Insecure. Now, she and Lee have teamed up in their passion for telling Black stories through a series birthed from an iconic Black movie.
“It’s always difficult to create any story,” Lee added in regard to making Black films and television programming in 2022. “There’s an extra microscope on us for sure. But I don’t feel like there’s a dearth of content out there. There’s a lot… if anything, and I think it’s all the different kinds of genres, too — whether it’s dramatics, melodramatic, comedy, horror, or historical drama. I think there’s a lot that is being done. So I don’t feel like we’re lacking right now.”
All eight episodes of The Best Man: The Final Chapters are set to premiere on Dec. 22 via the Peacock streaming app. Watch the limited series’ latest sneak peek below.
Written by Lee, the new limited series will tell “unfinished stories” of the original characters. Its eight episodes will also introduce a slew of new roles played by Nicole Ari Parker, Ron Canada, Brandon Victor Dixon, Michael Genet, Yvonna Pearson, Aaron Serotsky, Terrence Terrell, Tobias Truvillion, and Eric Scott Ways.
Elegance Bratton is an expert in fiction. Throughout his career in the U.S. Marine Corps, he learned how to pretend to be things he wasn’t. It was how he survived as a Black gay man during the era of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
It comes as no surprise, then, that Bratton has carved out a post-military career in filmmaking. His directorial debut, “The Inspection,” is a fictionalized retelling of his own experience as a young, gay Black man who, after being shunned by his own mother for coming out, decides to join the Marine Corps.
“I was kicked out of the house at 16 for being gay, and I spent the next 10 years homeless,” he told Military Times. “I really thought that I was completely worthless, but fortunately, a drill instructor told me that your life is important, and you are important, and you matter.”
The Marine Corps, despite not accepting openly LGBTQIA+ service members until 2010, when Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed, provided Bratton with a family, he said, one that he supported and that cared for him in return, even though he was unable to discuss his sexuality.
“You have a responsibility to protect the Marine to your left to your right,” Bratton said. “That notion was transformative for me, because I had never had that kind of trust from someone before. And to be honest, it was enough. That’s what I needed to hear to kind of turn my life around.”
“The Inspection” is an emotionally grounding movie that looks at a time in U.S. military history when not all of its members were able to fully embrace a sense of self. Despite that codified intolerance, Bratton notes, he and his fellow Marines were able to learn to accept and embrace the different ways of life they all led.
“I think we’re at a time, politically, where the left and the right are screaming at each other from our differences, rather than actually listening to each other,” Bratton said. “The Marine Corps is where I learned how to not only listen to people who are very, very different from me, but how to form meaningful human connections with them. This dysfunctional family helped me to love myself more, even as they asked me to repress myself.”
And even though he did hide parts of himself, Bratton said the Corps was instrumental in helping him develop an identity.
“I was finally able to take a moment and completely contemplate who I am, which aspects of my personality were too risky for me to reveal and which aspects of my personality were actually the things that anybody could bond with me over.”
Although “The Inspection” is a fictionalized account of his personal experience, Bratton views it as very much nonfiction by way of its depiction of the emotions, introspections, and experiences.
Ahead of its theatrical release, Bratton compared his film to the 1976 Sylvester Stallone classic, “Rocky.” Both films feature flawed, down-on-their-luck protagonists who emerge as unlikely heroes, finally garnering respect from not only their peers, but themselves as well.
“This movie is for anyone who’s ever felt disregarded,” Brattan said. “Ultimately, it’s Black, gay Rocky.”
“Judas and the Black Messiah” opened on HBO Max last weekend and I’m not gonna bother with a formal review of the film because you can find those anywhere, and because “Judas” is already on its way to amassing a stockpile of award show trophies that a dragon could comfortably rest upon. Most of those trophies, including an Oscar, are gonna be handed out because of this man, Daniel Kaluuya:
You might remember Kaluuya from his breakout role in Jordan Peele’s “Get Out.” Kaluuya got nominated for Best Actor for “Get Out,” and holy s—t did he deserve it. I remember I spent the entirety of that movie terrified for poor Chris. I also remember that when Kaluuya didn’t win Best Actor that year (fellow Brit Gary Oldman got it for playing Winston Churchill), it was okay because anyone who saw Kaluuya’s performance knew he’d be nominated for many, many other roles afterward. Three years later, after sharing the bill for “Widows” and for “Black Panther,” he’s delivered a performance in “Judas and the Black Messiah” that fulfills all of that promise, and far beyond. I saw the trailer for “Judas,” featuring Kaluuya spewing hellfire and brimstone as civil rights legend Fred Hampton, and I was like, “Oh yeah, I’m watching that. He’s gonna kick ass.”
I did and he did. Kaluuya is gonna be back at the Oscars this year, and he’s gonna win that s—t this time around. Because “Judas and the Black Messiah” proves that he’s the best goddamn actor on Earth right now.
Now, Warner Bros. submitted Kaluuya in the supporting actor category for “Judas,” because his “Get Out” co-star LaKeith Stanfield plays the spiritual lead (and is REALLY good) as FBI informant William O’Neal. But “Judas” belongs to Kaluuya’s Fred Hampton.
Hampton was the chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. His name and his story were completely unfamiliar to me before I started watching Judas. This is because I’m ignorant, and because American schools were far too stingy back in my childhood, and remain so, about allowing nonwhite material into the curriculum. Hampton’s story should be taught. This movie should be taught. And perhaps it will be, because the force of Kaluuya’s performance all but demands it.
You can’t take your eyes off of Daniel Kaluuya. Even in the tender scenes Kaluuya shares with love interest Dominique Fishback, his presence still bleeds off the screen. If Kaluuya spent the rest of his life in character AS Fred Hampton, I would vote him for president. I would pay him money to come to my town, give a speech as Fred and get everyone so fired up they could run through a god damn brick wall. I would like an expanded Fred Hampton Cinematic Universe.
In fact, that’s not far enough. I would like Daniel Kaluuya to be in EVERY movie now. Usually, when you go to an actor’s IMDb page, they have 900 future projects in development, half of which make you wince in anticipation. Kaluuya has just one: a Netflix adaptation of the science fiction novel “The Upper World.” I do not trust Netflix to make this show good — Netflix is like if you went to a brick-and-mortar Blockbuster store and everything in it sucked — but I do trust Kaluuya to play the hell out of his character.
He’s also due to star in “Black Panther 2,” and if they choose to make W’Kabi the next Black Panther (Marvel has already said that they will not recast the late Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, but will find another character to assume the mantle of the Black Panther; now you know as much as the rest of us do about it), you won’t see me complain. This world requires a massive Kaluuya stimulus. Democrats should send every household at least 2,000 Kaluuyas, and not a piddly-s—t 1,400. Hollywood should spin off his tinyass “Sicario” character and make good movies with that character instead of making garbage like “Sicario 2,” which looked like it was produced by Vince McMahon. Make Kaluuya the next Bond. Give him a standalone “Star Wars” franchise that Kathleen Kennedy is barred from ruining. Actually, you know what? F—k “Star Wars.” Daniel Kaluuya is too good for “Star Wars.” Keep Kaluuya away from “Star Wars” and make him Ahab instead. Make him Ellison’s “Invisible Man.” Make him Holden Caulfield. Make him Dracula. Make him “JAWS.”
Better yet, make Daniel Kaluuya a character no one has seen or heard of before. This man is part of a breakout mainstream movement in Black cinema that’s the newest, best thing coming out of Hollywood right now. Kaluuya is proof that the movement is already producing more exciting work than the incessant IP-humping that constitutes the bulk of studio products.
This man is not only talented, but he’s also got the juice to keep pushing Hollywood out of its deadened comfort zone. F—k, I’d pay to watch Daniel Kaluuya read the transcript of an investment firm’s Zoom call. I don’t care. Great actors elevate bad material and consecrate great material. That’s what Daniel Kaluuya can do. There’s no stopping him. There’s no need to try. Give him every Oscar, and then get out of his way.
It will never not be sadly funny that, of course, America designated its shortest month to be the one honoring Black History This year, however, it’s less sadly funny than just plain sad.
Ever since the uprisings last summer, set off by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police, structural racism has been part of the national discourse like never before. Some folks are just waking up to its insidious, rampant nature; others feel alternately vindicated by this new awareness and betrayed by its tardiness; and others still have merely doubled down on denying that the problem even exists. In the months since the George Floyd protests led President Trump to call Black Lives Matter “toxic propaganda,” Black voters came out in full force to elect a new president . . . only to see a coalition of white supremacists attempt to reverse that outcome by force. That they failed is less a cause for celebration than a reason to reflect on why they attempted their coup in the first place.
In any case, it is at a somber, introspective moment in American history that the country finds itself welcoming Black History Month this year. To make the month a bit more nourishing for everyone stuck at home, Fast Company has scoured the streaming services for a bounty of entertaining and often enlightening films and TV shows that showcase either Black stories or the talents of Black creators. Have a look below at 91 movies and TV series to stream during this poignant Black History Month. Fictional movies and shows rooted in history Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom on Netflix Da Five Bloods on Netflix Mudbound on Netflix Roots on HBO Max
Documentaries that tell Black stories Time on Amazon Prime I Am Not Your Negro on Netflix What Happened, Miss Simone? on Netflix Becoming, on Netflix, takes Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir from page to screen. LA 92 on Netflix and Burn Motherf**ker, Burn! on Amazon Prime both document the 1992 uprisings in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict that year. The Last Dance on Netflix Whitney: Can I Be Me on Amazon Prime Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child on Amazon Prime Mr. Dynamite: The Rise and Fall of James Brown on Amazon Prime Whose Streets, on Netflix, documents the efforts of Black Lives Matter activists to bring national attention to the police killing of unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The Trials of Muhammad Ali on Amazon Prime Anita: Speaking Truth to Power on Amazon Prime All In: The Fight for Democracy, on Amazon Prime, chronicles Stacey Abrams’s fight against voter suppression in her native Georgia, a fight that culminated in Georgia going blue in the 2020 election. The United States vs. Billie Holiday on Hulu starting February 26 Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami on Hulu Time: The Kalief Browder Story on Netflix Being Serena on HBO Max Original movies and series from Black creators I May Destroy You, on HBO Max, is a belated breakthrough for creator/star Michaela Coel, who is also behind the underrated gem Chewing Gum, which is also coming to HBO Max on February 1. Moonlight on Netflix His House on Netflix Soul Food on Amazon Chi-Raq on Amazon Selah and the Spades on Amazon Middle of Nowhere, on Netflix as of February 11, is Ava DuVernay’s 2012 film about a woman dropping out of medical school to help her incarcerated husband. Sylvie’s Love on Amazon Sorry to Bother You on Hulu is a constantly surprising surrealist critique of capitalism, from Boots Riley in his directorial debut. Eve’s Bayou on Hulu If Beale Street Could Talk on Hulu Clemency on Hulu Insecure on HBO Max Lovecraft Country on HBO Max The Book of Eli on HBO Max Us on HBO Max Drumline on HBO Max Atlanta on Hulu The Forty Year-Old Version on Netflix Dear White People on Netflix Topical standup and sketch comedy Chris Rock: Total Blackout: The Tamborine Extended Cut on Netflix Classic sitcoms, old and new Sister, Sister on Netflix Watchmen, on HBO Max, is a cultural powerhouse that audaciously grounds the classic graphic novel in a new, racially relevant context. It also provided a prescient history lesson on the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre nine months before a planned Trump rally brought it to the forefront of the national conversation. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on HBO Max Biopics based on Black stories Fruitvale Station on Netflix When They See Us, on Netflix, is Ava DuVernay’s powerful, comprehensive 2019 miniseries about the Central Park 5. Self-Made: Madam CJ Walker on Netflix Loving, on Netflix, is an Oscar-nominated dramatization of the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Loving v. Virginia, that invalidated state laws forbidding interracial marriage. Dolemite Is My Name on Netflix Hard Lessons on Netflix Detroit on Hulu Nina on Hulu Judas and the Black Messiah on HBO Max, due on February 12, tells the incredible true story of Fred Hampton (played by Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya), a Black Panther leader murdered by police, and the informant (played by Lakeith Stanfield) who helped them do it. Just Mercy on HBO Max The Hurricane on HBO Max Malcolm X on HBO Max Barry, on Netflix, is not HBO’s thespian hitman series but rather a film about the adventures of a collegiate Barack Obama. Harriet on HBO Max Get On Up on HBO Max Ray on HBO Max Confirmation on HBO Max Bessie on HBO Max
Other movies and shows that tell Black stories The Princess and the Frog, on Netflix, marks the introduction of Disney’s first-ever Black princess. Pose, on Netflix, is the acclaimed series about ballroom culture in the 1980s, with a cast that actually reflects the Black trans originators who created it, while Legendary, on HBO Max, is a reality competition series that reveals how the culture flourishes to this day. American Son on Netflix Coming to America, on Amazon Prime, not to be confused with the sequel, Coming 2 America, due on Prime in March. Fast Color on Amazon Prime Kevin Hart’s Guide to Black History on Netflix Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices on Netflix (Common) The Read with Kid Fury and Crissle on Amazon Prime Black Earth Rising on Netflix is a U.K.-set series about the prosecution of an African militia leader in the International Criminal Court. It’s another acting showcase for Michaela Coel, which originally arrived in between the two series she created herself. Black Boy Joy on HBO Max Purple Rain on HBO Max The Princess and the Frog, on Netflix, marks the introduction of Disney’s first-ever Black princess.
San Francisco memorializes the life of George Floyd and all those who died by the hands of police violence. Organized by Phelicia Jones. Featuring Rev. Thomas Fisher, Second Baptist Church Redwood City, CA. +++ A film by Robert Silver. A Day One Films production. http://www.dayonefilms.net
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