Black Public Media is set to top $2 million in support for PitchBLACK film and immersive projects at this year’s national pitch competition
A team makes their pitch at the 2024 PitchBLACK Forum (photo credit Ed Marshall)
WHAT: Sponsored by Netflix and PBS, the PitchBLACK Forum — the largest pitch competition of its kind in the United States for independent filmmakers and creative technologists who create Black content, an event by Black Public Media (BPM). With $225,000 in project development funding being vied for at this year’s competition, BPM is on target to hit $2 million in awards to film and immersive projects through its PitchBLACK initiative.
WHERE: The Apollo Stages at the Victoria, 233 W 125th Street, Third Floor, New York, NY 10027. This year for the first time, PitchBLACK moves to Harlem, the New York City neighborhood where BPM is based.
WHEN: The PitchBLACK Forum pitching competition — featuring five film teams and six immersive teams, pitching their projects before an audience of public media, commercial television networks, distributors and funders from across the country — will take place on Wednesday, April 30, beginning at 9 a.m. (Film projects, all documentaries, are being presented from 9 a.m. to noon; immersive projects, which incorporate artificial intelligence [AI], augmented reality, 3D animation, or are games, will take to the stage 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.)
To find out more about the competing projects, visit https://blackpublicmedia.org/pitch-black/pitchblack-2025/.
Winners of production and distribution awards will be announced at the PitchBLACK Awards on Thursday, May 1, at 7 p.m., an event during which history-making film editor Lillian E. Benson, ACE (American Cinema Editors) will receive the prestigious BPM Trailblazer Award. Benson is known for her Emmy® nominated work on Eyes on the Prize II, Showtime’s Soul Food, NBC’s Chicago Med and OWN’s Greenleaf. The event will include a conversation with Benson moderated by NPR host Brittany Luse (It’s Been a Minute). This year’s BPM Trailblazer Film Retrospective will feature a curated collection of works edited by Benson available for streaming for free on blackpublicmedia.org between April 28 and May 12.
WHO: BPM executive director Leslie Field-Cruz; BPM Trailblazer Award honoree, history making film editor Lillian E. Benson; NPR host Brittany Luse; advertising futurist Tameka Kee, emcee of the PitchBLACK Forum; comedian and Harlem comedy club owner Jamie Roberts, emcee of the PitchBLACK Awards; and Yansa Fatima, who will perform a song at the PitchBLACK Awards; and creatives telling Black stories.
BPM is a national nonprofit that funds quality film and immersive work, develops media makers and produces and distributes original content. Since 2015, the group has awarded more than $1.8 million to 23 film and immersive projects through the competition since launching it in 2015.
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