Narrative Feature
Spotlight
117 min
East Coast Premiere
Tony and Emmy Award® winner Jeffrey Wright stars in this biting comedy as Thelonius “Monk” Ellison, an under-appreciated author fed up with the state of Black literature in America. When he uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own, he is propelled into the hypocritical madness he claims to disdain.
Directed By Cord Jefferson
Documentary Short
Short Films
18 min
Discover the origins of the hand games that young Black girls have played for generations, and their influence on music, dance, and community across the American creative…
Directed By Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster
Narrative Short
Short Films
4 min
Ezra, who is Black and Jewish (aka Blewish) struggles to fit in; can he manage to embrace his whole…
Directed By Ezra Edmond
Narrative Feature
Spotlight
120 min
Set in London during World War II, BLITZ follows the epic journey of George (Elliott Heffernan), a defiant 9-year-old whose mother Rita (Academy Award nominee Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. Determined to return to his mother and grandfather (Paul Weller), George embarks on the perilous way home,…
Directed By Steve McQueen
Documentary Feature
World Cinema Documentary
68 min
Winner of the Berlinale Golden Bear, HIFF alum Mati Diop (ATLANTIQUES, 2019) returns with her piercing and inventive documentary feature debut, following the restitution of twenty-six royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Plundered by French colonial troops in 1892, these artifacts now make their way from Paris back to…
Directed By Mati Diop
Narrative Short
Short Films
15 min
International Premiere
Flipping the ''Essex Girl'' trope, this coming-of-age film explores Black British girlhood and magical female friendships in 2009…
Directed By Yero Timi-Biu
Narrative Feature
Spotlight
117 min
Celebrated American painter Tarrell (Andre Holland, MOONLIGHT) excavates beauty from the anguish of his youth through his art, keeping past wounds at bay. His joyful life with his wife Aisha (Audra Day) and their young son is interrupted when his estranged father La’Ron (John Earl Jelks) returns home, desperate to reconcile.…
Directed By Titus Kaphar
Narrative Short
Short Films
28 min
Starring and produced by world-renowned ballerina and African-American icon Misty Copeland, this movement-based piece seeks to highlight intergenerational struggles and the effects of the housing…
Directed By Lauren Finerman
Documentary Short
Short Films
27 min
World Premiere
In showcasing David Hempstead, Sr.'s journey from slavery to freedom on Long Island's East End, this insightful short also follows the Plain Sight Project, uncovering legacies of people of color in the…
Directed By Sam Hamilton, Julian Alvarez
Narrative Feature
Spotlight
97 min
Seven-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Mike Leigh (MR. TURNER, HIFF 2014) returns with this tough but compassionate portrait of family life. A brilliant and deeply moving Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Academy Award nominee for Leigh’s SECRETS AND LIES) stars as Pansy, a woman navigating life in London with her husband, son, and…
Directed By Mike Leigh