The Uptown Short Film Festival (USFF) is a 3-day festival showcasing the best short films and its filmmakers from our space and Uptown signature celebrations.

The goal of USFF is to express and showcase the diversity of content found in the latest productions from around the world and presents it to enthusiastic film audiences, aspiring actors, filmmakers, and industry professionals.

USFF seeks the next generation of writers, directors, producers, and actors while celebrating innovative storytelling from diverse and inclusive backgrounds. They seek films in which the above the line creative team and the dramatic agency of the film’s main characters must minimally be fully shared by individuals from underrepresented communities of color.

The selection committee curated 45 of the best films and will present these stories at MIST THEATER in HARLEM. A diverse group of six judges from film and television will select the winner for Best Film.

JUDGES
Lisa Cortes – Cortes Films, Jayson Jackson – Producer, Jamal Joseph – Director, Shola Lynch – Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Richard Pena – Director and Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University and Yvonna Kopacz-Wright – Actress

The recipient will receive $5,000 during the closing ceremony on Sunday, May 15th.