The Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF), one of the largest Black History Month events in America and the largest Black film festival, will kick off its yearlong 30th celebration in February with the first of several specially curated blocks of the festival’s most fascinating, complex and most liked films over the past three decades.
Throughout the festival’s 30-year history, PAFF has celebrated Black filmmakers and actors whose work has pushed the envelope in cinema in the US and abroad in Africa and other parts of the world. The “Best of PAFF Retrospective Series” kicks off with a Black History Month exhibition featuring nearly two dozen cinematic groundbreaking foreign and domestic films. The inaugural Best of PAFF Retrospective Series will take place virtually Feb. 15 through 28. Film listings, tickets, and passes are available at paff.org.
To celebrate PAFF’s 30-year milestone, the festival will continue its retrospective series in March highlighting Black female filmmakers and their films.
In addition, the 30th annual Pan African Film and Arts Festival is slated to take place April 19-May 1 after being postponed due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County. The hybrid festival of in-person and virtual screenings will take place in Los Angeles at its flagship venues: the Directors Guild of America; Cinemark Baldwin Hills; and Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza.
Actor Danny Glover (“The Color Purple,” “Lethal Weapon”), will be the Pan African Film Festival’s 2022 celebrity ambassador.
The Best of PAFF Retrospective Series is sponsored in part by the City of Los Angeles; the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture; Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell; Los Angeles City Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson (8th District); Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price (9th District); the 10th Los Angeles City Council District; the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences; LA Arts COVID-19 Relief Fund with the California Community Foundation; and the LA County COVID-19 Arts Relief Fund administered by the LA County Department of Arts and Culture.
For more information on the virtual celebration, visit https://watch.eventive.org/paff.
Established in 1992 by Glover , the late Ja’Net DuBois (“Good Times”), and Executive Director Ayuko Babu, the Pan African Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has remained dedicated to the promotion of Black stories and images through the exhibition of film, visual art, and other creative expression. PAFF is an Oscar qualifying festival for animation and live-action films.
