The American Black Film Festival announced on August 18 that its 31st edition will take place May 20-23, 2027, in Los Angeles, relocating from Miami Beach after nearly 25 years and positioning the festival at the geographic center of the entertainment industry it has spent three decades working to reshape. The move brings ABFF to venues including the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, AMC The Grove, SLS Beverly Hills, and the Original Farmers Market, spreading the festival across the city rather than concentrating it at a single location.
Key Takeaways
- ABFF’s 31st edition will run May 20-23, 2027, across multiple Los Angeles venues, marking the festival’s return to the city for the first time since a four-year run from 2007 to 2010.
- AMC The Grove will host film screenings; the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will serve as the venue for marquee events; SLS Beverly Hills will house industry programming, master classes, and professional development; the Original Farmers Market will feature activations and community experiences.
- Three new programming tracks debut in 2027: ABFF First Look: The Studio Showcase, ABFF Sports, and Crossroads, a noncompetitive section welcoming filmmakers of all backgrounds.
- The HBO Short Film Award enters its 30th year, remaining an Academy Award-qualifying award with the winning filmmaker eligible for consideration at the 100th Academy Awards.
- Film submissions are now open through FilmFreeway; festival passes go on sale September 1.
A 30-Year Journey From Acapulco to Hollywood
The geography of ABFF’s three decades tells its own story about where Black filmmakers have had to build space within an industry that has historically limited their access to it. Jeff Friday co-founded the festival in 1997 in Acapulco, Mexico, as the Acapulco Black Film Festival. The choice of location was itself a statement: the festival launched outside the United States, away from the industry infrastructure that Black filmmakers were simultaneously trying to enter and trying to change.
Friday later acquired full rights to the event, renamed it the American Black Film Festival, and moved it to Miami in 2002. Miami Beach became ABFF’s home for the next two decades, giving the festival a permanent base that allowed it to build the relationships, programming, and institutional identity that turned it into one of the entertainment industry’s most significant gatherings for Black talent. The festival spent four editions in Los Angeles from 2007 through 2010 before returning to Florida, where it remained through its 30th anniversary celebration in May 2026.
The return to Los Angeles 17 years later carries a different weight than the first visit. In 2007, ABFF was establishing itself as a national platform. In 2027, it arrives as a 30-year institution that has built its own pipeline of filmmakers, executives, and creative professionals. The move places ABFF events within walking distance of major studios, talent agencies, production companies, and the infrastructure that determines which stories get made, funded, and distributed at scale.
The Venue Strategy Distributes the Festival Across the City
Rather than anchoring at a single hotel or convention center as it did in Miami Beach, ABFF 2027 will operate across four distinct Los Angeles venues, each serving a different function within the festival’s programming architecture.
AMC The Grove, one of the highest-grossing movie theater locations in the country, will host film screenings. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which opened in 2021 as the largest museum in the United States dedicated to the art and science of filmmaking, will serve as the venue for marquee events. SLS Beverly Hills will function as the hub for industry programming, hosting the conversations, master classes, and professional development sessions that have historically driven much of the festival’s career-building value. The Original Farmers Market, one of Los Angeles’ longstanding public gathering spaces, will feature activations and community experiences designed to extend the festival beyond the industry-facing programming.
Complimentary daytime shuttle service will connect all four venues, addressing the logistical challenge that any multi-venue festival in Los Angeles must solve: the city’s geography does not accommodate the kind of foot traffic that made Miami Beach’s concentrated layout convenient for festivalgoers.
Nicole Friday, president of NICE CROWD, the production company that coordinates ABFF, described the multi-venue approach as an opportunity to build on the festival’s existing sense of community while creating “new opportunities for filmmakers, audiences, industry leaders, and partners to connect.”
Three New Programming Tracks Expand the Festival’s Scope
The Los Angeles edition introduces three programming additions that broaden what ABFF covers and who it invites into the conversation.
ABFF First Look: The Studio Showcase will offer attendees preview access to upcoming projects from studios, independent distributors, and streaming platforms. The program is designed to include exclusive footage, announcements, and appearances by filmmakers and talent, positioning the festival as an early-access destination for audiences and industry professionals alike. For studios and streamers with projects targeting or featuring Black audiences, the showcase creates a direct channel to a community of engaged viewers and critics who shape cultural reception.
ABFF Sports represents a new vertical, described as a “festival within the festival” exploring the intersection of sports, storytelling, entertainment, media, business, and culture. Programming will include screenings, panel discussions, and presentations featuring athletes, filmmakers, journalists, and executives from both industries. The addition reflects the growing convergence between sports media and entertainment production, a space where Black athletes, commentators, and producers have been particularly active in building content companies and production partnerships.
Crossroads, the third addition, takes a different approach entirely. The noncompetitive film section welcomes filmmakers of all backgrounds whose narrative and documentary features explore the intersections of culture, identity, and community. The inclusion of a track explicitly open to filmmakers who are not Black expands the festival’s frame without diluting its core mission, creating a space for cross-cultural storytelling that connects to ABFF’s thematic concerns without being defined by them.
The HBO Short Film Award Enters Its 30th Year With Academy Qualification
Among ABFF’s returning programs, the HBO Short Film Award carries particular significance as it enters its third decade. HBO, a founding sponsor of the festival, has backed the award since its inception, making it one of the longest-running corporate commitments to Black independent filmmaking in the entertainment industry.
The award operates as more than a festival prize. It is an Academy Award-qualifying award, meaning the winning filmmaker becomes eligible for consideration in the Live Action Short Film category at the Academy Awards, subject to Academy rules and requirements. For the 2027 cycle, that eligibility connects to the 100th Academy Awards, a milestone ceremony that will coincide with ABFF’s own institutional milestone.
The qualification pathway matters because short films are often the first calling card a filmmaker produces, and Academy Award qualification can transform a short from a portfolio piece into a career accelerator. For Black filmmakers who may lack the industry connections or institutional backing that smooth the path from short film to feature, the HBO Short Film Award provides a credentialing mechanism that carries weight with studios, financiers, and agents.
What the Move Means for Miami and for the Industry
ABFF’s departure from Miami Beach removes one of the city’s signature cultural events from its annual calendar. The festival’s 24-year presence in South Florida created an ecosystem of hotels, restaurants, sponsor activations, and networking events that generated economic activity and cultural visibility for the region. Whether Miami retains any ABFF programming or satellite events has not been announced.
For the broader film industry, the relocation positions ABFF within a Los Angeles landscape that has seen its own reckoning with representation over the past decade. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded its membership to address demographic imbalances. Studios created inclusion initiatives and development programs. Streaming platforms invested in content targeting Black audiences. ABFF’s arrival in Los Angeles in 2027 places a 30-year-old institution, built from outside the traditional industry power structure, at the center of a city that is still working to prove that its representation commitments are structural rather than performative.
Submissions for eligible ABFF 2027 categories are now open through FilmFreeway, covering narrative features, documentaries, episodic projects, and short-form storytelling. Festival passes go on sale September 1 at ABFF.com.
FAQs
When and where is the 2027 American Black Film Festival?
ABFF’s 31st edition will take place May 20-23, 2027, in Los Angeles. The festival will use multiple venues: AMC The Grove for screenings, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures for marquee events, SLS Beverly Hills for industry programming and master classes, and the Original Farmers Market for activations and community experiences. Complimentary shuttle service will connect all venues.
Why is ABFF leaving Miami Beach?
ABFF founder Jeff Friday described the move as the festival’s “next chapter,” focused on expanding opportunities for the next generation of storytellers by placing the festival in closer proximity to the entertainment industry’s infrastructure. ABFF was previously held in Los Angeles from 2007 to 2010 before returning to Miami Beach, where it remained through its 30th anniversary in May 2026.
What new programming will debut at ABFF 2027?
Three new tracks will launch in 2027: ABFF First Look: The Studio Showcase, offering preview footage and announcements from studios, streamers, and independent distributors; ABFF Sports, a dedicated vertical exploring the intersection of sports, storytelling, and entertainment; and Crossroads, a noncompetitive section welcoming filmmakers of all backgrounds whose work explores culture, identity, and community.
How can filmmakers submit to ABFF 2027?
Submissions for narrative features, documentaries, episodic projects, and short-form storytelling are now open through FilmFreeway. The HBO Short Film Award, entering its 30th year as an Academy Award-qualifying award, will open submissions separately at a later date. Festival passes go on sale September 1 at ABFF.com.
