The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) Podcast Competition is a national search to showcase emerging Black podcasters. Its mission is to bring broader awareness to quality shows and provide support in the form of financial and development assistance.

Awards & Prizes

Up to two (2) members of each of the three (3) final Podcast Series selected will each receive a trip prize to the 2023 ABFF in Miami (if they reside outside of the City of Miami), FL. The prize includes: one (1) round-trip coach class ticket, hotel accommodations: June 14 to June 18, 2023 (4 nights) plus ABFF Festival credentials, and the opportunity to host their show to a live ABFF audience.

Each of the three (3) Podcast Series selected will receive a grand prize of $1,500, and the opportunity to receive mentorship and development assistance from a major company specializing in podcasting.

Rules & Terms

- Open only to permanent, legal United States (“U.S.”) residents who are physically residing in one (1) of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia (excluding Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and other U.S. territories).
- All entrants must be twenty-one (21) years of age or older as of the start of the contest period.
- If the podcast features more than one host, at least half of the team must be of African descent.
- Podcast must have been created after January 1, 2021.
- Submissions must be no more than five (5) minutes in length.
- Submissions must be the original work of the entrant(s).
- Submissions must not include any music created by anyone other than entrant(s) as further described below.
- Submissions must not contain material that violates or infringes another's rights (including, but not limited to material that violates privacy, publicity, or intellectual property rights).
- Podcast must not be sponsored or have received sponsorship in the past.
- Podcast must not be hosted exclusively on any platform.

HOW TO ENTER

Your podcast submission, herein referred to as your “Micro Episode”, must be uploaded to ABFF Podcast Competition FilmFreeway portal, per the directions listed on filmfreeway.com. In order to enter this competition, entrant(s) must submit an audio file featuring the entrant(s) discussing a topic of her, his, or their choosing (the Micro Episode). The Micro Episode must be a clip from an "original" (as defined by copyright law) episode of the entrant(s) Podcast Series. Your Micro Episode must be transferred into an .mp4 or .mov file and housed online (via video sharing sites such as vimeo.com or dropbox.com for example). You will need to provide ABFF with a URL directly to your Micro Episode in order to complete your submission.

Complete one (1) Competition Submission Form downloadable from abff.com, and submit inclusive of the URL link to your Micro Episode by uploading to the Podcast Competition FilmFreeway Portal by the competition deadline of February 28, 2023.

These two (2) items, the URL link to the Micro Episode and the completed Competition Submission Form, will constitute your valid submission/entry. You may enter only once. By submitting to the Podcast Competition entrant agrees that his/her/their submission becomes the sole property of the ABFF and that no correspondence will be acknowledged or entered into.

Failure to comply with this or any other official rule will result in disqualification.