Black Public Media (BPM) announced that its 2025 PitchBLACK Forum will award over $2 million in funding for Black film and immersive projects. The event will take place April 30 in Harlem from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will be followed by the PitchBLACK Awards ceremony on May 1 at 7 p.m.
The forum, sponsored by Netflix and PBS, will give independent filmmakers and creative technologists the chance to pitch projects to public media representatives, television executives, distributors, and funders. BPM expects to award more than $225,000 this year, surpassing $2 million in total awards since PitchBLACK began in 2015.
The PitchBLACK Awards will also honor Lillian E. Benson, ACE, with the BPM Trailblazer Award. Benson is known for her work on Eyes on the Prize II, Showtime’s Soul Food, NBC’s Chicago Med, and OWN’s Greenleaf. The ceremony will be hosted by comedian Jamie Roberts, and feature a conversation with Benson moderated by NPR’s Brittany Luse.
The forum will take place at The Apollo Stages at the Victoria in Harlem. The film project pitches will be presented from 9 a.m. to noon, while immersive project pitches will run from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Creatives competing this year include Sidney Fussell, Jennifer Holness, Karen Hayes, Arlieta Hall, Brittany Alsot, Chelsi Bullard, Jacqueline Olive, Caron Creighton, Anatola Araba, Aya, Steven Christian, Jeremy Kamal, Joel Mack, and Rasheed Peters.
Winners of the Nonso Christian Ugbode Fellowship, which supports emerging under-30 creators, will also be announced during the awards ceremony. An after-party will follow the event.
Tickets for the PitchBLACK Awards are $300 and available through the Apollo Theater’s website. A curated retrospective of Lillian E. Benson’s work will be available for free streaming on blackpublicmedia.org from April 28 to May 12, featuring Beyond the Steps; Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise; New World, New Forms; The Taste of Dirt; and two segments from Eyes on the Prize II.
PitchBLACK’s funding and initiatives are supported by Netflix, PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, MacArthur Foundation, Acton Family Giving, Agog LLC, New York Community Trust, Rockefeller Family Fund, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Sonder Foundation, and the New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.
More information about BPM and PitchBLACK can be found at blackpublicmedia.org, and updates are available on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at @blackpublicmedia.
