SABIFF 2024 - San Antonio Black International Film Festival

The San Antonio Black International Film Festival (SABIFF) is celebrating its 6th year of empowering events! This year, the festival will be held both virtually and physically in the “Alamo City” for three days, from October 4 to October 6, 2024. This year, the San Antonio Black International Film Festival’s SABIFF 2024 is ‘changing the script’ from our regular Open Call Films-In-Competition Submissions for 2024 to reFOCUS * reCHARGE * reFRESH our organization (this year’s festival’s theme).

We are thrilled to have concluded SABIFF 2023 on a high note, celebrating our 5th year anniversary. As we enter our 6th year, our leadership team recognizes the importance of strengthening our roots from within and nurturing our soil to ensure that our festival continues to grow strong, healthy, and sustainable in the years to come. For 2024, SABIFF will scale the festival days, and timeframe for film submissions consideration which will entail decreased rates. Find out more below:

SABIFF 2024 festival dates will run for 3-days, both virtually and physically in the “Alamo City” from October 4 to October 6, 2024, with curated content themed around a range of vigorous cinema to uplift and nourish our minds, bodies, and spirits. This year, we will NOT conduct a “Films in Competition” awards. Although there will be no Films in Competition awards this year, SABIFF will select and curate a wide range of quality films to exhibit around the theme of “reFOCUS * reCHARGE * reFRESH” as well as recognize local Texas film Creatives and their works.

If you have a film of any genre that you would like to submit for consideration to add to this year’s nourishing program focus on any form of wellness, which can range from stories on any aspect of resolution, ranging from - mental, physical, financial, environmental, identity, history, futurism… -to- justice, to reciprocity, to redemption - Feel free to submit to our OPEN CALL.

Our OPEN CALL submissions timeframe will only run for 4-months, from February 1, 2024, to May 5, 2024. In consideration of our 6th year alterations, all Early Bird specials and regular deadline submissions all the way to late entries are reduced.

SABIFF accepts all original, quality video/film narratives, documentaries, animation, and music videos from around the world, with diverse perspectives on the Black experience. Films must be created by, for, and/or about Black perspectives, with Black Creatives in leading production roles.

The San Antonio Black International Film Festival (SABIFF) is dedicated to showcasing quality films, advocating for, and supporting filmmakers of African descent. We aim to expose audiences to a myriad of subject matters, stories, voices, perspectives, and diverse images of Black people throughout the global African Diaspora who have been historically under-represented. SABIFF affirms that multitudes of quality Black films deserve to be presented to all audiences thirsting for alternative independent cinema in the Alamo City and virtually. We believe that the elevation of Black history, culture, lives, and diverse narratives is empowering to people and platforms, which in turn inspire positive and progressive social change. #BlackFilmsMatter

SABIFF provides a unique philanthropic service aimed at connecting universal humankind to misinterpreted and under-represented African-humanity on the silver screen. We promote cultural pluralism by amplifying films created by people who identify as, and represent data specific to Afrocentrism. We present unique film works and introduce creative perspectives to disparate and isolated audiences open to receiving a Black-world-view of cinema. We understand that the African proverb “it takes a village to raise a child” holds true in the independent film world for African-descent storytellers. It takes a village to create moving narratives and images reflective of one’s ethnic identity, history, and experiences that are consciously and unconsciously inherent in our physical and cultural DNA.

San Antonio is the 7th largest city in the United States and is widely known for its tourist attractions, including the Alamo, the five-time NBA champion SPURS basketball team, delicious Tex-Mex cuisine, the 750 ft. Hemisphere Tower, and its beautiful River Walk, which runs through the downtown area. SABIFF’s expansion of the arts, culture, and storytelling through Black films, pride, and economic development on the Eastside, adds to the city’s commitment to broaden equity, diversity, and inclusion.

We invite you to stay connected, follow us on social media, become involved, and consider being a thriving part of our SABIFF village.

SABIFF 2025 will come back in full swing; including our Opening Night, Ankh Achievement Award, Black Friday Student Field trips, Workshops & Films-In-Competition screenings, Soul Saturday's F-I-C exhibitions & Cinema Under the Stars Closing Night, and Filmmaker's Sunday Glory Awards Brunch. 2025 is set to be ALL THE WAY LIVE!

*Black Heritage Things to do in San Antonio https://www.visitsanantonio.com/black-heritage/