🎬 Kwanzaa Film Festival – 10th Anniversary Call for Films

This year, the Kwanzaa Film Festival proudly celebrates its 10th Anniversary — a decade of honoring culture, creativity, and community storytelling.

To mark this milestone, we will be showcasing 10 exceptional filmmakers:

5 Feature Films

5 Short Films

We are currently seeking powerful, original films that meet the following eligibility requirements:

Film Eligibility Criteria

Films must have been completed between 2020–2026

Films must NOT have premiered on the East Coast

Open to narrative, documentary, and culturally rooted storytelling

Filmmakers of African descent and allied storytellers strongly encouraged to apply

This anniversary edition is dedicated to elevating fresh voices, bold stories, and films that deserve their first East Coast premiere platform.

Selected filmmakers will receive:

Official selection status

Screening during the 10th Anniversary Kwanzaa Film Festival

Q&A and panel opportunities

Media exposure and community engagement

📅 Festival Dates: December 26 – January 1
📍 Location: New York City + Virtual Programming (Hybrid)

More details, submission deadlines, and submission links will be announced soon.

Awards & Prizes


🌟🎬 Kwanzaa Film Festival 2026 Awards

The Kwanzaa Film Festival proudly honors filmmakers whose work reflects the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa. Awards include Best Narrative Feature, Documentary Feature, Short Film, Director, Actor, Jury Innovation Award, and Audience Choice.

🏆 Winners receive:
• Industry meetings with distributors
• Professional consultations
• Media spotlight and festival recognition

🎥 Submit your film and be part of our 10th Anniversary celebration — Celebrating the Talented Ten.

#KFF2026 #KwanzaaFilmFestival #BlackCinema #IndieFilm #FilmAwards #CelebrateCreativity

Rules & Terms

Rights & Permissions – 2026 Submissions

All films submitted must be the original work of the applicant. If a film is based on a real person, book, or other underlying material, the applicant must have secured all necessary adaptation rights. Submission of rights documentation is not required, but responsibility remains solely with the applicant.

Applicants are fully responsible for obtaining all permissions and clearances for any third-party content used in the film, including music, images, trademarks, logos, and copyrighted material.

The Kwanzaa Film Festival does not verify authorship or rights ownership and assumes no liability for any rights violations.

By submitting, applicants agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Kwanzaa Film Festival, its staff, jurors, directors, representatives, and affiliates from any claims, damages, or legal expenses, including reasonable attorneys’ fees, arising from the submission.
49 Reviews
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  • Hakima Benjamin

    I appreciate Ina and the Kwanzaa Film Festival. Such a great festival to showcase your film.

    January 2026
    Helpful
  • Deirdre Molloy

    Thanks for selecting my film Drum Calls Cosmos II for an exciting festival with great program, venues, community and events in Harlem, New York including an award ceremony and a Baptist fellowship meeting. As a filmmaker from the diaspora based in Europe I was disappointed that my film was not screened in New York but only online. I can understand why only films of directors who could attend in person were screened in theaters, but we still paid the same fees as all the other entries. As a PhD student soon to submit my thesis I was also unable to arrange a representative from our Europe-based team to attend the award ceremony. The way the online program was sent as a flyer image instead of a link made it difficult to access, lost in piles of emails and my film title was spelled wrong on the flyer. So the festival was a underwhelming as I didn't even receive a link to distribute Drum Calls Cosmos II online. No doubt in vibrant New York the in-person experience was better.

    January 2026
    Helpful
    Response from festival:

    We have a tremendous number of filmmakers and we do our best to keep up with each one. Your filmmaker was among the few films that we presented both virtually and in person.Thank you for your understanding and continued support.

  • Latrice Curry (Quintana)

    Thank you so much. We love your festival, and it is an honor to be included in its history.

    January 2026
    Helpful
  • Cortez Mack

    Greetings Kwanzaa Film Festival 2025,

    Thank you for selecting the music video “Reparations” as an Official Selection of the Kwanzaa Film Festival 2025. This was a GREAT HONOR and I appreciate this GREAT RECOGNITION . . . 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

    January 2026
    Helpful
  • Adria K. Hernandez

    This was the most joyous festival of the year. Very honored to be a part of it. I hope it grows to become the top festival in the world.

    January 2026
    Helpful