New York, New York, March 17, 2017 – The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) has announced the first annual ABFF Greenlighters Academy, a new educational and career development initiative targeted to African American college students with an interest in pursuing executive careers in film and television.
This is a pipeline program that inspires its participants to become heads of various divisions within the Hollywood studio system and nurtures future film and television executives who will be leaders of this industry. The inaugural Greenlighters Academy will launch in Los Angeles this April.
As the first official program under the new ABFF INSPIRES umbrella, the ABFF Greenlighters Academy will educate students on the inner workings of the film and television business while granting them access to leading industry experts who will share valuable career building tips, along with guidance based on their own career trajectories.
Actor and producer Terrence Jenkins will serve as the ambassador to the Greenlighters Academy. Terrence recognizes the importance of giving back and helping African American students understand the corporate side of the film and television industry. Through his company, Jenkins Entertainment Group, Terrence has been optioned to develop and executive produce original content for both MTV and VH1. Terrence also took his talents to the silver screen and starred in such films as Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, Think Like A Man, Baggage Claim, The Perfect Match, and more. Past television hosting jobs have included BET’s popular music countdown show, 106 & Park and E! News’ daily entertainment news show.
“The ABFF Greenlighters Academy is an expansion of our 20-year legacy of identifying young African American talent. We firmly believe that we have to lift as we climb. This unprecedented incubator program will give African American college students the opportunity to jump-start their corporate entertainment careers through the information and access they will receive. The ABFF Greenlighters Academy is a pipeline to corporate positions that will inspire these diverse young people to become executives who are an integral part of greenlighting film and television projects in Hollywood,” states Jeff Friday, CEO of ABFF Ventures, LLC.
Terrence will host the two-day intensive boot camp in Los Angeles where students will attend sessions with top corporate entertainment executives, agents, department heads, and production company owners. The speakers will describe their career trajectory, conduct “Day in the Life” seminars, and engage the students in “Ask Me Anything” roundtable discussions. The boot camp will also include outings to various Hollywood offices, studio lots and/or set locations, which will give the students a look into the day-to-day of working within a corporate entertainment company. The program will also assist students throughout the year to secure internship opportunities at production companies, television networks and movie studios.
“I am happy to partner with the ABFF on the Greenlighters Academy. While in college, I always searched for information on how to break into Hollywood. This program is the answer and I look forward to being a part of the next generation of entertainment business executives,” says Terrence Jenkins.
Participants will leave the ABFF Greenlighters Academy with a clear understanding of what it takes to “green light” a project and the knowledge and understanding of the steps they need to pursue a career in the corporate entertainment executive path.
The application submission rules for the ABFF Greenlighters Academy are available online now at http://www.abff.com/abff-greenlighters-academy/ and the submission deadline is March 31, 2017. The academy is open to African American students pursuing all majors, who are sophomores or above matriculated in a four-year bachelor degree program at an accredited college or university, with a current GPA of 3.0 or above.
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Website: http://www.abff.com/abff-greenlighters-academy/
ABOUT ABFF:
The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) is an annual event dedicated to showcasing quality film and television content by and about people of African descent. It supports emerging artists to foster a wider range of images, stories and storytellers represented in the entertainment industry. The festival is committed to the belief that Black artists and content creators deserve the same opportunities as their mainstream counterparts. ABFF founder Jeff Friday conceived the festival in 1997 as a vehicle to promote diversity in the motion picture industry, and strengthen the Black filmmaking community through resource sharing, education, artistic collaboration and career development. Today, the ABFF is recognized as the preeminent pipeline to new Black talent, both in front of and behind the camera, and is regarded as one of the leading film festivals in the world. The ABFF is a property of ABFF Ventures, a multifaceted entertainment company specializing in the production of live events, television and digital content targeted to upscale African American audiences.
