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Anthony Hamilton (Photo Courtesy)
Steven Caple Jr. will receive the 2026 ABFF Alumni Award, Anthony Hamilton will perform, and the festival’s competitive nominees will be honored on May 30 in Miami Beach.
The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) will close its 30th anniversary season with its 2026 Best of the ABFF Awards — a celebration of independent film, television, and the artists shaping the future of the industry.
The ceremony will take place Saturday, May 30, at 8:30 p.m. at the New World Center in Miami Beach, Florida. The event will be sponsored by Walmart and hosted by New York Times best-selling author and award-winning comedian KevOnStage.
This year’s theme is “Homecoming,” and the word carries weight. Writer and director Steven Caple Jr. will receive the 2026 ABFF Alumni Award, returning to the festival that helped mark an early turning point in his career.
Caple won the HBO Short Film Award at the ABFF in 2013. Since then, he has directed “Creed II” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” and his upcoming projects include “Man on Fire,” starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and “I Am Legend 2,” starring Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan.
Caple’s return to the ABFF is more than a ceremony. It is a reminder of what the festival has long worked to do: create space for emerging filmmakers, connect them with the industry, and help move their work into broader conversations.
“The Best of the ABFF Awards has always been about honoring the brilliance and resilience of independent creators,” said Jeff Friday, president of NICE CROWD, in announcing the event and its highlights. “As we celebrate our 30th year, it is incredibly poetic to welcome back Steven Caple Jr., a filmmaker whose journey from our short film competition to global blockbuster success embodies the very mission of this festival. We are proud to celebrate him alongside this year’s exceptional nominees.”
The evening will also feature a special 30th anniversary musical performance by multi-platinum, Grammy Award-winning recording artist and actor Anthony Hamilton.
Founded in 1997 by Friday, the ABFF has become one of the leading platforms for film and television content by and about people of African descent. Each year, the festival brings more than 7,000 attendees to Miami Beach for screenings, panels, networking events, and cultural programming.
This year’s awards will honor work in U.S. and international narrative features, directing, screenwriting, performance, documentary feature, and episodic series categories.
The nominees for the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Narrative Features are “Funny Feelings,” directed by Rhonda Baraka; “Girl Dad,” directed by Solvan Slick Naim; “Otra,” directed by Armani Ortiz; “THAT’S HER,” directed by Nina Lee; and “Three Colors: Pan-African,” directed by Elijah Davis, Allison A. Waite, and Tyler Ocasio Holmes.
The Directing Award for U.S. Narrative Feature, presented by Ally, includes Baraka for “Funny Feelings”; Davis, Waite, and Holmes for “Three Colors: Pan-African”; Lee for “THAT’S HER”; Naim for “Girl Dad”; and Ortiz for “Otra.”
The Screenwriting Award for U.S. Narrative Feature, presented by Amazon MGM Studios, includes Sam Buckner III and Charlie T. Savage for “Voices: The Musical”; Madou Elijah Diarrassouba, Gillian Allou, JaQuay Collins, Elijah Davis, and Dami Olatunji for “Three Colors: Pan-African”; Je’Don Holloway-Talley for “Funny Feelings”; Naim and Lane Williamson for “Girl Dad”; and Ortiz for “Otra.”
The Performance Award for U.S. Narrative Feature includes Vena “Pretty Vee” Excell for “Funny Feelings”; Rome Flynn for “Otra”; Marsai Martin and Courtney B. Vance for “Girl Dad”; and Bashir Salahuddin, Sibongile Mlambo, and Peyton Alex Smith for “Three Colors: Pan-African.”
The international narrative feature nominees are “Garden of Silences,” from Brazil and Italy, directed by Henrique Dantas; “Lights Out,” from Cameroon, directed by Enah Johnscott; “Seahorse,” from Canada, directed by Aisha Evelyna; and “Small Gods,” from the United Kingdom, directed by Asher Rosen.
The documentary feature nominees are “ALTADENA — Rising from the Ashes,” directed by Ethan Lader; “Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story,” directed by Yemi Bamiro; “Cycles of Resilience: A Journey Through Austin’s Black History,” directed by Ya’Ke Smith; and “The Foolishness of God: A Forgiveness Journey with Desmond Tutu,” directed by Karen Hayes.
The episodic series nominees are “Law’s World: Lipstick Bandit,” created, written, and directed by Law Artis; “Love Song,” created, written and directed by Nofisat “Love Nafi” Almaroof; “Takes A Village,” created, written, and directed by LaDarius “Dee” Torrey; “The Comic Shop,” created and written by Cheyenne Ewulu and directed by Jalen Blot; and “Ti Blan,” created and written by Noah Petion Laforest and directed by Dwight Ellis Jr.
The festival’s sponsors and partners include Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO as founding partners; the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau as host; and Ally Financial, Amazon MGM Studios, Comcast NBCUniversal, Walmart, the City of Miami Beach, American Airlines, Netflix, Sony Pictures Entertainment, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Eli Lilly and Company, Lexus, CBS, GLAAD, the Motion Picture Association, Uber, STARZ, ESPN, AARP, Hartbeat, L’Oréal Groupe, WME, Variety, the Los Angeles Times, and Getty Images.
The 30th anniversary arrives at a time when access, visibility, and ownership remain urgent questions in Hollywood. The ABFF has spent three decades answering those questions through action: by giving filmmakers a place to be seen, heard, and taken seriously.
That is why Caple’s return feels right for this anniversary year. His career reflects the festival’s larger purpose. He came through the ABFF as an emerging filmmaker; he returns as one of its most visible alumni.
On May 30, the festival will name its winners, but the night will also honor something larger: 30 years of gathering, building, and making room for the next generation of storytellers.
For more information, go to www.nicecrowd.com and follow @ABFF on Twitter and @AmericanBlackFilmFestival on Instagram and Facebook.
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