Pan African Film & Arts Festival

About Pan African Film and Arts Festival

The Pan African Film and Arts Festival, known as PAFF, was founded in 1992 by Danny Glover, Ja'net Dubois, and executive director Ayuko Babu. The Los Angeles Times called PAFF the largest Black film festival in the United States in 2013, and three decades on it remains a defining venue for cinema by and about people of African descent.

PAFF's stated mission is to promote cultural understanding among peoples of African descent through art and film exhibition. The festival operates as a non-profit corporation, and its programming reflects a long-term editorial commitment rather than a year-to-year curatorial reinvention. The inaugural 1992 festival showcased over 40 films by Black directors from four continents, including Sarraounia, Heritage Africa, and Lord of the Street — programming that established the festival's pan-continental scope from the start.

When and Where PAFF Runs

PAFF runs annually in February in Los Angeles. The February timing is significant in the festival calendar: it places PAFF during the lead-up to Black History Month's peak attention, and the festival's film and arts programmes function together as a major cultural event in the city.

PAFF's Two-Festival Structure

PAFF is structurally unusual: it is both a film festival and an arts festival, and the two run in parallel. In 2013, the film festival drew approximately 30,000 patrons while the arts festival drew around 75,000 visitors. That combined audience scale — over 100,000 attendees across both festivals — is part of what makes PAFF a major cultural event rather than only a programming venue.

Programming and Oscar Qualification

PAFF is an Oscar-qualifying festival — for shorts filmmakers in particular, that qualifying status is the festival's most strategically consequential feature, opening Oscar consideration that the vast majority of festivals cannot offer.

Programming spans multiple formats. In 2014, the festival presented 179 films from 46 countries, including:

• Feature-length documentaries
• Short documentaries
• Narrative features
• Narrative shorts
• Web series

The international scope is genuine: 46 countries in 2014 reflects PAFF's consistent commitment to cinema from across the African continent and the broader diaspora rather than only Black American filmmaking. Filmmakers preparing a submission should treat the festival's pan-continental focus as a real curatorial filter — work in conversation with that focus has a meaningfully different reception here than work submitted only on general indie-festival merits.

Notable Filmmakers Featured

PAFF's programming has featured directors and actors who have gone on to substantial careers within and beyond independent cinema, including directors Gavin Hood and Stephanie Okereke, and actors Omari Hardwick and Nicole Beharie.

Submitting to PAFF

Filmmakers should review the official festival guidelines for current deadlines, eligibility, and category-specific criteria. Filmmakers planning Academy Award campaigns through PAFF should pay particular attention to qualifying-festival rules, which are stricter than the festival's general eligibility criteria.

Strong submissions tend to share standard characteristics: a polished screener, an accurate synopsis, a director's statement that articulates the work's perspective and connection to the festival's pan-continental focus, and complete production credits.