BlackStar

What BlackStar does

BlackStar (legally BlackStar Projects Inc.) is a Philadelphia-based 501(c)-style nonprofit founded in 2011 by Maori Karmael Holmes that produces the annual BlackStar Film Festival and a portfolio of year-round programs supporting Black, Brown, and Indigenous film and visual culture. Its flagship is the festival, which in its 15th edition (August 2026) showcases 91 films from more than 30 countries, complemented by the William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar (an annual three-day professional development event), the Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab (a year-long fellowship for local filmmakers), the Seen journal of film and visual culture, and the Many Lumens podcast. The organization also curates special programming such as the John Coltrane En Motion live-rescoring screening series developed under its What Now: 2026 initiative.

The underlying operating model is event-driven cultural curation rather than technology-led: there is no proprietary software platform, no AI/ML capability, and no app or API surface, with distribution occurring through the organization's website, e-commerce shop, social channels, and the Give Lively donation platform. The core technology layer is conventional web publishing, video, and podcast infrastructure supporting programming, ticketing, and journal sales.

BlackStar's revenue mechanics are anchored in philanthropic giving from a concentrated base of major institutional funders (Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation), supplemented by earned income from festival passes, individual event tickets, and Seen journal sales via shop.blackstarfest.org. Following a 2026 restructuring, the organization operates with 15 full-time staff from a Center City, Philadelphia headquarters, and as of May 2026 unified its brand identity across the festival, parent organization, and related programs in partnership with New York design firm Pacific.

Name

BlackStar

Legal name

BlackStar Projects Inc.

Website

https://blackstarfest.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

BlackStar Projects is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that produces the annual BlackStar Film Festival and year-round programs supporting Black, Brown, and Indigenous filmmakers and visual artists, including a fellowship, seminar, journal, and podcast.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Film Festival and Cultural Arts Programming

NAICS

Performing Arts Companies (7111), Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries (512), Convention and Trade Show Organizers (56192), Fine Arts Schools (611610)

SIC

Services-Motion Picture & Video Tape Production (7812)

akta.pro primary industry

Film Festivals & Festival Organizers (MPADAKAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Media Arts & Film/Photography Nonprofits (BPAGAHAJ), Community & Cultural Screenings (Museums, Cultural Centers) (MPADAKAH), Arts Education & Community Arts Programs (BPAGAHAC), Grant Funding & Public/Nonprofit Financing (MPADAAAO)

Keywords

• Film festival curation
• Visual arts programming
• Filmmaker development
• Arts nonprofit
• Cultural journal publishing

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Festival Passes and Tickets: The organization generates revenue through the sale of festival passes and individual event tickets for the BlackStar Film Festival and screening series.
2. Journal Sales (Seen): Sale of the Seen journal of film and visual culture, with Issue 010 marking a milestone tenth issue celebrating fifteen years of the BlackStar Film Festival.
3. Donations and Philanthropic Support: The organization relies on donations from individuals and institutional supporters including foundations such as Wallace Foundation, William Penn Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and Ford Foundation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

BlackStar produces the annual BlackStar Film Festival and a slate of year-round programs supporting Black, Brown, and Indigenous filmmakers and visual artists. Offerings include the festival itself, the Seen journal of film and visual culture, the William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar, the Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab fellowship, the Many Lumens podcast, and curated screening series such as John Coltrane En Motion.

Product overview

BlackStar is an arts and media organization that operates a portfolio of interconnected programs unified under the BlackStar Projects parent entity. The core offering is the BlackStar Film Festival, an annual celebration of visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and global communities of color. Supporting programs include Seen (a film and visual culture journal), the William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar (a three-day professional development event), the Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab (a year-long fellowship), and Many Lumens (a podcast). The organization also curates special programming such as the John Coltrane En Motion screening series. These programs collectively serve Black, Brown, and Indigenous filmmakers and artists through education, exhibition, publication, and community-building initiatives.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Seen: A journal of film and visual culture published by BlackStar
• Many Lumens
• William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar
• Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab

Products and services

• BlackStar Film Festival Annual celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and global communities of color, showcasing films by Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists from around the world; flagship program of BlackStar Projects.
• Seen (journal) A journal of film and visual culture published by BlackStar Projects, featuring critical discourse on Black, Brown, and Indigenous cinema and available for purchase through the organization's shop.
• William and Louise Greaves Filmmaker Seminar Three-day professional seminar for Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists working in cinematic realms, hosted annually by BlackStar to provide professional development and critical conversation.
• Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab Year-long fellowship with BlackStar for Black, Brown, and Indigenous filmmakers based in Philadelphia, supporting cohort filmmakers through an extended development program.
• Many Lumens Podcast Podcast hosted by BlackStar founder Maori Karmael Holmes featuring conversations with groundbreaking artists, change makers, and cultural workers exploring intersections of art, social change, and popular culture.
• John Coltrane En Motion (Screening Series) Screening series featuring immersive film-and-music experiences that rescores films with live performances exploring the sonic universe of John Coltrane, examining emotional, cultural, and spiritual pathways of migration.

Quantifiable outcome

• 91 films from more than 30 countries showcased at the 15th annual festival

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Pacific (New York Design Firm)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 May 2026Pacific, a New York-based design firm, partnered with BlackStar to rebrand its visual identity ahead of the 15th edition. The new visual identity brings greater cohesion across the organization's year-round programs while reflecting the experimentation, rigor, and care that have defined its work over the past fifteen years. The rebrand unifies the festival with its parent organization BlackStar Projects and related programs under a cohesive brand.
• Barnes FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026The Barnes Foundation is collaborating with BlackStar on special programming for the 15th edition milestone, with the exhibition co-curated by founder Maori Karmael Holmes. This partnership connects the film festival programming with the art institution's offerings.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Outfest: Los Angeles-based LGBTQ+ film festival and year-round media arts nonprofit. Runs an annual festival plus filmmaker programs and is widely recognized as an identity-based film festival model that BlackStar parallels for Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.
• Bentonville Film Festival: Founded by Geena Davis, this festival explicitly focuses on inclusion and underrepresented voices in film. Comparable to BlackStar in its equity-driven mission and its positioning at the intersection of cultural programming and diversity-focused content curation.
• CAAMFest (Center for Asian American Media): A nonprofit film festival and year-round media arts organization dedicated to Asian American stories, structurally analogous to BlackStar as an identity-focused film festival with filmmaker development, screenings, and broader cultural programming.
• Pan African Film Festival (PAFF): The largest Black film festival in the United States, showcasing Black cinema from across the diaspora. Operates as a multi-day festival with year-round programming comparable to BlackStar's festival-plus-ancillary-program model.
• New York African Film Festival: Nonprofit festival curating films by and about people of African descent, with year-round programming and an explicit equity mission that closely mirrors BlackStar's focus on Black, Brown, and Indigenous filmmakers from the African diaspora and global communities of color.

Broad incumbents

• Tribeca Film Festival: Major New York-based film festival with year-round programming, screenings, and industry events. Comparable to BlackStar as a multi-faceted film festival operation in an East Coast city, but at significantly greater scale and without BlackStar's identity-specific programming focus.
• SXSW Film & TV: Large Austin-based multi-arts festival with a significant film component, alongside music, gaming, and tech programming. Comparable as a large-scale festival operator offering films, panels, and networking, though it serves a vastly broader audience and curatorial scope.
• Sundance Film Festival: The largest independent film festival globally and a much larger incumbent with year-round filmmaker programs (labs, grants, screenings). Operates as a broad incumbent because it offers overlapping capabilities for indie filmmakers but serves a general, rather than identity-specific, mission.
• Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF): One of the most prominent public film festivals globally, with significant year-round programming and industry clout. Comparable as a major film festival organization but operates at a much larger scale and with mainstream (rather than identity-specific) programming.
• AFI FEST (American Film Institute): Long-running Los Angeles film festival run by the American Film Institute, featuring international cinema and filmmaker programming. Comparable as a nonprofit-affiliated film festival with year-round programming, but oriented toward broad global cinema rather than BlackStar's equity-specific mission.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/blackstarprojects
• Facebookfacebook.com/BlackStarFest
• Instagraminstagram.com/blackstarfest
• Xx.com/BlackStarFest
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/blackstarprojects

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about BlackStar