For anyone interested in a film or television career, Miami was the place to be this past week as celebrities, filmmakers and TV and film executives gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in Miami to celebrate the best in black film. The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is now in its 16th year and is one of only three annual film festivals that specifically cater to black films. Founder Jeff Friday says this festival is one not geared just to sell films, like the more mainstream Tribeca, Sundance and Toronto film festivals but to assist new talent with getting a foothold in the industry.
But there were awards given out in narrative film, actor and actress, documentary, webisode and short films for films showing at Miami’s Colony Theater and at the Miami Cinematheque. Tracee Ellis Ross was this year’s ABFF ambassador, but actors Vanessa Williams of “Soul Food” fame, Rockmund Dunbar, Malinda Williams, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Boris Kodjoe, Mekhi Phifer, actor/director Bill Duke, Issa Rae, creator of the webisode series of “The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl,” director Tim Story, Nelsen Ellis (“True Blood”) Michael K. Williams (“The Wire,” Boardwalk Empire”)writer/director Mara and Salim Akil and CNN’s Don Lemon were all there.
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(Source: Black America Web)
