The North Carolina Black Film Festival (NCBFF) announces 2025 honorees

The 22nd Annual North Carolina Black Film Festival (NCBFF), showcasing Black cinema, will take place from April 10-13th, 2025 in Wilmington, North Carolina.

About North Carolina Black Film Festival (NCBFF)

The four-day festival celebrates independent motion pictures created by Black filmmakers and includes features, shorts, narratives, and documentaries, along with a variety of events including its annual Cinemixer – Opening Night Reception, Family Cinema, the Awards Ceremony and Closing Film.

2025 NCBFF honorees

This year, the festival will honor film producer and animator Bruce W. Smith with the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award in Animation. The festival will also honor cinematographer Isiah Donté Lee with the 2025 Visionary Award in Cinematography.

Bruce W. Smith

Submitted by North Carolina Black Film Festival

Multiple award-winning animation artist Bruce W. Smith is creator and executive producer of Disney+’s The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, the long-anticipated revival of the groundbreaking animated series The Proud Family.

An accomplished director, producer and animator, Smith has been part of the animation industry for over three decades. He is best known for creating and executive-producing Disney Channel’s hit series The Proud Family and The Proud Family Movie.

Most recently, Smith served as one of three directors of the Academy Award-winning short Hair Love.

During his tenure at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Smith supervised animation on many animated feature films including The Princess and the Frog, specifically for evil villain Dr. Facilier; Winnie the Pooh; Tarzan and The Emperor’s New Groove.

His gift for unique character design led him into visual development for the Studio’s other projects such as Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen. He was also the lead animator on the short film Tangled Ever After.

A California Institute of the Arts alumni, Smith’s additional credits include Space Jam, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, A Goofy Movie, Bébé’s Kids and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child.

“He has true devotion to his artistry and the celebration of family and excellence shines true in each stroke of his drawing pen”, saidFestival Finance Administrator, Sandra McClammy.

Isiah Donté Lee

Submitted by North Carolina Black Film Festival

Isiah Donté Lee was born and raised in North Carolina.

Lee studied cinematography at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts before moving to Los Angeles. He got his first break shooting music videos for artists such as Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Big Sean, Travis Scott, and John Legend. He has also shot countless commercials for brands such as Apple, Nike, Google, Disney, Facebook and more.

He is a class of 2016 Film Independent: Project Involve fellow. His first feature film Burning Sands (2017) premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2021, he was named one of Variety’s 10 Cinematographers to Watch. In 2022, he was recognized by the American Society of Cinematographers as a Rising Star in the art & craft of Cinematography.

Lee’s narrative work includes the Netflix original film Windfall starring Lily Collins, Jason Segal and Jesse Plemons, the Universal studios adventure comedy film Please Don’t Destroy and the Marvel Studio’s hit series Agatha All Along. His newest work can be seen in the Amazon Prime upcoming series The Better Sister set to release later this year.

“He is an exceptionally talented cinematographer that has lensed a vast catalogue of movies, TV series, documentaries, commercials, and music videos. He has made an impact on the world of cinematography from the beginning and continues to broaden that impact with each new project”, said  McClammy.

Tickets

The North Carolina Black Film Festival (NCBFF) will be hosted by the Black Arts Alliance, Inc. (BAA) in Wilmington, North Carolina.

You can purchase festival passes now at www.BlackArtsAlliance.org.