Photos: PitchBLACK Forum
Sponsored by Netflix and PBS, the PitchBLACK Forum — the largest pitch competition of its kind in the United States for independent filmmakers and creative technologists who create Black content, an event by Black Public Media (BPM). With $225,000 in project development funding being vied for at this year’s competition, BPM is on target to hit $2 million in awards to film and immersive projects through its PitchBLACK initiative.
WHERE:
The Apollo Stages at the Victoria. This year for the first time, PitchBLACK moves to Harlem, the New York City neighborhood where BPM is based.
WHEN:
The PitchBLACK Forum pitching competition— featuring five film teams and six immersive teams, pitching their projects before an audience of public media, commercial television networks, distributors and funders from across the country — will take place on Wednesday, April 30, beginning at 9 a.m. (Film projects, all documentaries, are being presented from 9 a.m. to noon; immersive projects, which incorporate artificial intelligence [AI], augmented reality, 3D animation, or are games, will take to the stage 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.)
To find out more about the competing projects, visit https://blackpublicmedia.org/pitch-black/pitchblack-2025/.
Winners of production and distribution awards will be announced at the PitchBLACK Awards on Thursday, May 1, at 7 p.m., an event during which history-making film editor Lillian E. Benson, ACE (American Cinema Editors) will receive the prestigious BPM Trailblazer Award. Benson is known for her Emmy® nominated work on Eyes on the Prize II, Showtime’s Soul Food, NBC’s Chicago Med and OWN’s Greenleaf. The event will include a conversation with Benson moderated by NPR host Brittany Luse (It’s Been a Minute). This year’s BPM Trailblazer Film Retrospective will feature a curated collection of works edited by Benson available for streaming for free on blackpublicmedia.org between April 28 and May 12.
WHO:
BPM executive director Leslie Field-Cruz; BPM Trailblazer Award honoree, history making film editor Lillian E. Benson; NPR host Brittany Luse; advertising futurist Tameka Kee, emcee of the PitchBLACK Forum; comedian and Harlem comedy club owner Jamie Roberts, emcee of the PitchBLACK Awards; and Yansa Fatima, who will perform a song at the PitchBLACK Awards; and creatives telling Black stories.
BPM is a national nonprofit that funds quality film and immersive work, develops media makers and produces and distributes original content. Since 2015, the group has awarded more than $1.8 million to 23 film and immersive projects through the competition since launching it in 2015.
