The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is an annual five-day event dedicated to empowering black artists and showcasing quality film and television content by and about people of African descent. Committed to the belief that diverse artists deserve the same opportunities as their mainstream counterparts, ABFF founder Jeff Friday conceived the festival in 1997 as a vehicle to strengthen the black filmmaking community by encouraging resource sharing, education and artistic collaboration. ABFF has called Miami Beach home for over two decades.

ABFF has grown in popularity, and as a result, its costs have too. ABFF is asking the City of Miami Beach to support it by becoming an official sponsor. ABFF will produce and market the festival for 2020-2022, promote partner hotels, and offer community Wallcasts in Soundscape Park for a $250,000 annual cash sponsorship from 2020-2022. Additional details of the proposal can be found in the attachments.

I ask the Finance and Citywide Projects Committee to consider ABFF's proposal.