Watch for These Smithsonian African American Film Fest Award Winners

By Sameer Rao Oct 31, 2018

The first Smithsonian African American Film Festival wrapped Saturday night (October 27) with an advance screening of "If Beale Street Could Talk," which director Barry Jenkins noted will be "the only IMAX presentation of this film ever." Yesterday (October 30), the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) released the results of the festival’s juried competition.

rntA jury that—per the Smithsonian—included #OscarsSoWhite creator April Reign, BlackStar Film Festival artistic director Maori Holmes and several producers and scholars picked winners across six categories from more than 200 submissions. The winners:

“I am tremendously proud of the inaugural winners, filmmakers and jurors who devoted themselves and their films to the first Smithsonian African American Film Festival,” festival organizer and NMAAHC curator Rhea Combs said in an emailed statement. “The festival’s success is rooted in the commitment of the many dedicated filmmakers whose moving images inspire and shed light on the many untold stories of the African-American journey."

See the full list of competing films on the festival’s website.

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