The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) celebrates its 25th anniversary with its virtual event Nov. 3–28, 2021.
The festival is celebrating 25 years of encouraging, uplifting, and celebrating Black voices. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event will be virtual for the second year in a row, but that doesn’t mean it will be any less exciting.
ABFF is run by Jeff Friday of ABFF Ventures, whose brands include the American Black Film Festival (ABFF), ABFF Honors, ABFF Comedy Festival, and ABFF London Film Festival. Friday runs the festival with his wife Nicole Friday, the president and general manager of ABFF Ventures L.L.C.
Both have an extensive background in the film industry. Jeff is a television and film producer whose résumé includes the acclaimed feature documentary Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn. Nicole has more than two decades of experience in the film industry as an executive, producer, writer, and media personality.
The first ABFF was held in Acapulco, Mexico, in 1997, where it stayed for five years before moving to Miami, where the festival has been since.
“It was actually Jeff who started when he went to another festival, Sundance, and realized there were very few Black people in attendance as well as Black content and thought that he should do something about that,” said Nicole Friday. “We had tremendous support from the Hollywood community in the beginning. Robert Townsend and Bill Duke, Nia Long, Halle Berry were some of the people who attended our first festivals.”
