Harlem International Film Festival announces 2021 dates and Call for Entries

The Harlem International Film Festival (Hi) announced the 2021 edition of the film festival will take place on May 6-9. Building on the success of this year, the event will be a hybrid presentation, with plans to return to theaters as well as keep a corresponding and complimentary virtual presentation. The film festival also announced its Call for Entries with an Early bird Deadline set for November 7.

Once again, the Harlem International Film Festival will celebrate world cinema and showcase local filmmakers and screenwriters with its signature style. The film festival has been noted for its ability to find and highlight films that have not been retread from other film festivals and stay true to its programming sensibility. The marriage of Little Africa to El Barrio, Jazz to Dance, History to Art and cinema born from one of the world’s most vibrant artistic communities guide the direction of the film festival year-in and year-out.

Harlem International Film Festival Program Director Nasri Zacharia said, “We look forward to finding films for our 16^th edition that will introduce people throughout the state of New York and the film community at large to the unique hybrid of global cinema and local films that we have built a reputation celebrating for more than a decade and a half now. We take our position as part of Harlem and New York City’s film and arts community seriously, and it will be invigorating to return to theaters and see those films on the big screen in 2021, even as we utilize the virtual space to present those films to film fans throughout the rest of the state as well.”

Another successful addition to the film festival that will be duplicated in 2021 will be the robust and impressive jury with film scholars, film industry veterans, filmmakers, and actors. Among the jury members for the recently concluded 2020 edition included; James McDaniel (Actor, Orange is the New Black, NYPD Blue); Corey Glover (lead singer, Grammy winning Living Colour); Richard Peña (Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University, former director, New York Film Festival); Lisa Thomas (Executive Producer, Adult Swim’s Teenage Euthanasia); Claire Aguilar (Former Director of Programming and Policy, International Documentary Association); Phil Bertelsen (Series Producer and Director, Netflix’s Who Killed Malcolm X); Mariposa María Teresa Fernández (Poet, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song); Assia Lakhlif (Hi alumna, Producer, DAUGHTER); Emi Katayama (Director, WIND RIDERS); Marishka Phillips (Director/Writer/Producer, I Am Charlie); and Al Thompson (Actor, WHEELS, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS).

THE 2021 HARLEM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Categories/Submission Deadlines

AWARDS CATEGORIES

Best Film

Best World Film

Best Documentary

Best World Documentary

Best Animation

Best Experimental

Best Short

Best Documentary Short

Best Youth Film

Best Music Video