HBCU Week NOW and Black Public Media  is excited to announce the launch of its inaugural Student Film Festival, a celebration of creativity, innovation, and storytelling by the next generation of filmmakers from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The festival will premiere during Black History Month 2026, spotlighting the voices and visions of HBCU students nationwide.

About the Film Festival

The HBCU Week NOW Student Film Festival aims to:

• Showcase the talent and artistry of HBCU students.
• Provide a platform for their stories to reach broader audiences.
• Inspire creativity and foster community.

Submission Details

We encourage you to share this opportunity with your students and support them in submitting their short films. Here are the key details:

• Eligibility: Open to currently enrolled HBCU students and recent graduates (3 years). Students do NOT have to be enrolled in a film program.
• Film Length: Short films up to 30 minutes.
• Themes: We welcome films across all genres, with a special focus on stories reflecting Black experiences, culture, and history.

Deadline: The submission window is open now through Saturday, April 12, 2025.

The virtual festival will feature 10 films with each receiving a $5,000 award.

HBCU Week NOW is a public media partnership project that celebrates and amplifies the remarkable history and legacy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities while empowering the next generation of leaders. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS, administered locally by Maryland Public Television, funds HBCU Week NOW. Black Public Media, an organization that supports the development of visionary content creators and distributes stories about the global Black experience, has partnered with Maryland Public Television on this project.

AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange has delighted audiences for over 15 years. Its stories are as beautiful as they are poignantly told. Black Public Media (BPM) is committed to bringing to the American public dynamic stories that celebrate the art, culture, history and creativity of people of African descent from the US and around the world.

We are looking for strong stories that will capture the breadth and scope of the diversity of the Black experiences. Programs can be about music, art, human rights, sports, politics, health, or anything in between.  Programs should be accessible to a broad audience, have the potential for a national broadcast, and can be used for effective outreach and engagement activities to reach audiences beyond the public television broadcast. Completed programs must be able to meet PBS technical and editorial standards. We seek documentary and narrative broadcast or feature length programs only. Submissions are accepted year-round.
 

For programs selected for AfroPop, Black Public Media provides competitive licensing rates for broadcast and/or digital platform distribution.

AfroPoP is produced in partnership with WORLD Channel for broadcast and/or digital release.

AfroPoP Digital Shorts is Black Public Media’s series of short films (nonfiction and narrative) shedding light on a variety of topics from the Black perspective. The Digital Shorts are premieres on the BPM YouTube channel every third Monday of every other month and is available to stream on demand.

We are looking for strong stories that will capture the breadth and scope of the diversity of the Black experiences. Programs can be about music, art, human rights, sports, politics, health or anything in between.  Programs should be accessible to a broad audience and can be used for effective outreach and engagement activities to reach audiences beyond the public television broadcast. We seek documentary, narrative and animated short programs. Submissions are accepted year-round.
 

For programs selected for AfroPop, Black Public Media provides competitive licensing rates for digital platform distribution.