Urbanworld Film Festival

The Urbanworld Film Festival, founded in 1997 by Stacy Spikes, is the largest internationally competitive festival of its kind, hosted in New York City. The five-day festival includes narrative features, documentaries, short films, web originals, music videos, spotlight screenings and conversations, live staged screenplay readings, Urbanworld Innovation focused on digital and social media, and Urbanworld Music highlighting artists in live performances during the festival. Since its inception, Hollywood studios, indie film distributors, and established and emerging filmmakers have consistently chosen Urbanworld® to premiere box office and award-winning hits. Urbanworld has been supported over the years by Founding Sponsor HBO, as well as other industry and brand partners. Known as the filmmaker's festival and the people's festival, where it's all about celebrating and supporting amazing independent film, Urbanworld will host its 25th year in Manhattan, which has been a home for the festival, since inception in 1997 . Last year, Urbanworld featured filmmakers from around the world screening over 100 projects virtually, with spotlight conversations featuring industry talents including Ava DuVernay, David Oyelowo, Rosario Dawson, Leena Waithe, Kelly Rowland, Teyonah Parris, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Radha Blank, and Robert Townsend. Over its 25 years, Urbanworld has welcomed the likes of Chadwick Boseman, Jennifer Lopez, Halle Berry, Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Kate Hudson, Viola Davis, and Rosie Perez, among so many more. Queen Latifah, Melvin & Mario Van Peebles, Justin Simien, Gina Prince Bythewood, Larenz Tate, Reginald Hudlin, Kasi Lemmons, and Tyrese Gibson have all served as Festival Ambassadors. Urbanworld provides a forum, focused on innovation, for case study presentations, panel and roundtable discussions, as well as intensive workshops on relevant industry subject matter. Participating content creators enjoy hosted industry events by festival partners that foster community with industry peers and executives. After dark, Urbanworld Music celebrates the intersection of music and film, with indie musicians and DJs sharing their music with festival attendees during evening after parties. Simply put...Premieres, Panels, Parties is what Urbanworld delivers. The Urbanworld Film Festival is an initiative of the Urbanworld Foundation Inc., a nonprofit organization that redefines and advances the presence and impact of the multicultural community in cinema and cross-platform media. By implementing initiatives that actively support and develop content creators of color, Urbanworld significantly contributes to the evolution of the media and entertainment landscape and the inclusion that it reflects. Gabrielle Glore serves as Festival Director and Head of Programming for the Urbanworld Film Festival. The festival website is www.urbanworld.org.