The 2024 ESSENCE Film Festival Aims To Highlight Black Storytellers Worldwide

For all the filmmakers and content creators out there, submissions for the 2024 ESSENCE Film Festival are now open! With its quality material, insightful conversations, and positive fellowship, this event has become the ultimate gathering for Black storytellers worldwide.

Set to take place July 5 -7 during the ESSENCE Festival of Culture in New Orleans, this year’s Film Fest will serve as a celebration of creatives across Black America and the African diaspora, as well as audiences seeking to discover these new voices and perspectives in entertainment. Each day of the festival aims to highlight innovative narratives in all forms, from film and television projects to music and audio presentations.

Through daily symposiums, workshops, panel discussions and other activations, this highly anticipated event hopes to connect dynamic filmmakers to career advancing resources that will assist in jumpstarting their projects. In showcasing exceptional original content in film, television, music, and new media created by Black storytellers, the ESSENCE Film Festival continues to uplift and normalize creatives of color in Hollywood.

The 2024 edition of the ESSENCE Film Festival also features a set of competitive categories for original motion pictures, nonfiction feature films, social impact stories, short films, independent pilot, and animation/tech driven. The regular deadline for these categories is January 31, with the late deadline going until February 20, 2024.

In addition to the above mentioned categories, storytellers can participate in a podcast competition, which will be split into sub-categories—Written Fiction Podcasts and Audio Podcasts. There is also a Screenplay/Teleplay Competition, where finalists will have the opportunity to participate in a live reading during the Essence Film Festival.

For more information and to submit your project, please visit this website. See you in New Orleans!