Pan African Film Festival

The festival was founded in 1992 by actors Danny Glover, Ja'net Dubois, and executive director Ayuko Babu.^[4] Babu had no ties to Hollywood and was working as a financial consultant before he contributed to finding the film festival.^[5] Glover and actress Whoopi Goldberg co-hosted the festival in 1992.^[6]

One of the main goals was to expose others to African films because many of the films were not being screened and going unnoticed. Babu states, "A showcase festival, maybe two of them. First, try one in Hollywood. That would get the attention of the movie crowd and would stimulate international interest. Then, try Washington that would draw in the political community."^[5] Another goal was to connect other African people to each other because there is so much diversity amongst African people.

It featured over 40 films by Black directors from four continents. The Los Angeles Times said the films had universal themes as well as African themes: "the overthrow of colonial governments, the clash between modern values and traditional values, and tales of gifted artists". Films at the first festival included Sarraounia, Heritage Africa, and Lord of the Street.^[7] In 2013, the film festival attracted approximately 30,000 patrons, and the arts festival attracted around 75,000.^[3] In 2014, the film festival featured 179 films from 46 countries. The films included feature-length documentaries, short documentaries, narrative feature films, narrative short films, and web series.^[8]

Source:^[10]

The Pan African Film & Arts Festival presents annual awards recognizing achievement in narrative, documentary, and short filmmaking. Categories include Jury Awards, Audience Awards, Programmers' Awards, and other special honors.

• Joseph Gaï Ramaka^[11]
• Omari Hardwick^[3]
• Nicole Beharie
• Stephanie Okereke
• Gavin Hood

• Pan-Africanism
• List of film festivals