The 10th annual Blackbird Film Festival wrapped up this past weekend, featuring four days of film-related activities and screenings of indie films by creators from around the globe. Both filmmakers and film lovers alike gathered in Old Main’s Brown Auditorium to celebrate their mutual love for the art form.
The festival has gone through quite a metamorphosis of sorts since its inception in 2015 when it was launched initially as a festival for teen filmmakers only. In just their second year of operation, Blackbird opened their doors to all filmmakers for submissions with the goal of fostering collaboration, inspiring creativity, and amplifying the many diverse voices that deserve to be heard in the world of cinema.
“My original motivation came from wanting to run a student showcase at a teen filmmaking camp I was running in Cambridge, MA, back in 2015 but that didn’t really pan out and so I opened it up to all filmmakers using FilmFreeway and Blackbird started!” said Sam Avery, the Executive Director and founder of the festival. “Since then, the team has grown tremendously!”
Avery has a long history of making films himself, beginning at just 10 years old creating simple stop-motion movies with a camcorder starring his action figures. From there, he realized a passion for filmmaking and went on to get his Master of Fine Arts in Media Production and work closely with award-winning ethnographic film director Sarah Elder and Emmy-Award-winning producer/director Elliot Caplan.
Blackbird 2024 saw a total of 714 films get submitted with just 103 of them being accepted, giving it a competitive acceptance rate of just 14.4%. The accepted films were then divided into thirteen different “genre” blocks so that they could be scheduled for screening. Some of the blocks featured this year were titled “Friday Night Feels”, “Let’s Talk About Sex”, and “Anxiety Overload” just to name a few.
As with many other festivals on the indie circuit, Blackbird strives to ensure that a wide range of directors from all walks of life can have their films seen. Of the accepted films, 59 were either written or directed by women, 32 by BIPOC, and 31 by LGBTQIA+ community members.
“It’s really nice to be a part of a collective experience,” said Branden Riley, an Assistant Director for Blackbird.
With over 12,400 films reviewed and just over 1,000 screened since 2015, the festival has gained more attention and notoriety each year, surpassing any original expectations that were had for it and even earning the #3 ranking on FilmFreeway’s “Top 100 Best Reviewed Festivals” in 2019, with over 10,000 other events being considered!
“The festival has become bigger than I expected, and it is time to decide the next logical direction,” said Avery. “I have a variety of ideas for new directions but need to weigh the time and cost involved in these adjustments.”
While the festival might be getting bigger than ever anticipated, the original vision remains the same.
“The ideal goal every year is to have a fun, inclusive environment where filmmakers and enthusiasts can gather and celebrate cinema,” said Alex Locke-Wright, Blackbird’s Social Director, and a former intern of the festival. “I am very happy with how large Blackbird is although in an ideal world, I would love to see the entire Brown Auditorium filled at least once. Maybe even get some big actor or director to make an appearance.”
Even though the fun is over for this year, anyone who is curious to learn more about the festival for next year should be sure to visit the official Blackbird website for any questions they may have.