The Hollywood Black Film Festival (HBFF), dubbed “The Black Sundance,” is an annual 6-day celebration of black cinema drawing together established and rising filmmakers, popular film and television stars, writers, industry executives, emerging artists and diverse audiences from Southern California and around the world. The festival has become a hotbed for the Black Hollywood creative community. HBFF was founded in 1998 by its executive director, Tanya Kersey, with a mission focused on fostering and developing the vision of independent filmmakers by bringing their films to the attention of the industry, media and public through a public exhibition and competition program. Since its inception, HBFF has screened a total of 596 independent films from all across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the Caribbean and has hosted 203 world premieres. The festival’s adjunct Infotainment Conference features 20+ panels and workshops and 100+ speakers, and covers a broad range of entertainment industry topics. Over 40,000 people have attended and enjoyed the diversity of Black cinema through the festival. The 2008 festival will be held June 3-8, 2008 in Beverly Hills, California, and will showcase the artistic expression of more than 120 black filmmakers from around the world.

In keeping with it's commitment to support the creative community, in addition to the annual film festival, HBFF has created complementary platforms to showcase and develop filmmakers' projects -- the HBFF Cinema Lounge and HBFF Film Finance & Distribution Summit. The HBFF Cinema Lounge is a casual monthly networking and screening program that screens 4 to 5 short films followed by audience feedback and Q&A with the filmmakers. The annual HBFF Film Finance & Distribution Summit boasts a senior roster of seasoned industry professionals offering their insights on a broad range of film finance and distribution topics.