The American Black Film Festival is making a stop in Atlanta this weekend.
The ABFF Pop Up Tour will be at AMC Madison Yards 8 Nov. 8-9, according to a press release. This is a new initiative from the American Black Film Festival, which is based in Miami Beach, meant to expand the festival’s reach beyond its flagship event. Other pop ups have taken and will take place in New York, Dallas and Los Angeles.
“There was a demand for it, and the brand had national awareness and global awareness,” said festival founder Jeff Friday of the decision to do the pop up tour. “Finally, we just decided this year that enough was enough. It’s time for us to expand the footprint of the brand.”
Before founding the festival in 1997, Friday went to the Sundance Film Festival to see the film “Love Jones.” The festival scene has since evolved to become more diverse, but back then, while Friday loved the festival experience and the energy, he didn’t see as much diversity as he would have liked.
“It wasn’t diverse enough,” he said. “American audiences were more diverse than the people making decisions about these movies.”
This realization spurred Friday to start the American Black Film Festival, which has grown as the years have gone by, spotlighting Black talent from across the country. For example, Ryan Coogler, director of movies like “Black Panther” and this year’s “Sinners,” won the festival’s HBO Short Film Award in 2011 and the Rising Star Award in 2016.
“We’ve had so many success stories,” Friday said. “It’s been an amazing adventure.”
Throughout the weekend, the ABFF Pop Up Tour will feature screenings and conversations with industry figures about everything from screenwriting to working behind the camera.
The pop-up event in Atlanta will start at 11 a.m. on Nov. 8 with a Master Class with Randall Dottin, a filmmaker and the chair of the Screenwriting Department at New York Film Academy’s New York campus. Other industry faces set to attend include actress and producer Crystal Renee Hayslett, actor Adrienne Walker, and actor and filmmaker Terri J. Vaughn.
“The overall vision for my programming team is to bring a little bit of what we do at the festival [to the pop ups],” Friday said. “There’s one master class in every city … Then we do what we call celebrity conversations, and TV premieres and film premieres. We have a series called BOB Talks, where we highlight Black-owned entrepreneurs.”
Atlanta’s BOB Talk, which takes place on Nov. 9, will feature local Atlanta businesses.
Also on Nov. 9, the pop up will screen “Meta Take One,” an Atlanta-made film from filmmakers John Dierre and Ryan Dutter. The film won the festival’s 2025 John Singleton Award for Best Debut Feature.
On Nov. 8 at 7 p.m., the pop up will also include a showcase of five short films that were finalists for this year’s HBO Short Film Award. Those films include the winner, “ADO,” from director/co-writer Sam Henderson and co-writer Ryan Romine; “A Beauty Supply in Queens,” from writer and co-director Princess Adenike and co-director Oluseyi Olatujoye; “In Good Hands,” from writer Yasmine Crawley and director Nick Buchheit; “ManBooBs,” from writer/director Luke Harris; and “Last Hoorah at G-Baby’s,” from writer/director DeeDee Casimir.
Friday said that the HBO Short Film showcase is the festival’s longest running program. Friday said his advice to aspiring filmmakers, especially those looking to compete in the short film program at ABFF, is to watch as many shorts as possible and to be critical of your own work.
“We’re touring this showcase specifically because … we want people to see what the competition is,” Friday said. “We want you to see what the level is, what the bar is.”
The full schedule and tickets for each event can be found online.