BLACK PUBLIC MEDIA’S PITCHBLACK FORUM & AWARDS RETURNS TO HARLEM
Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith ( photo credit Stephanie Berger)
Acclaimed documentary filmmakers Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith
will receive the BPM Trailblazer Award at the April event.
Filmmakers
Stanley Nelson and Marcia Smith have been selected as Black Public Media 's 2026 Trailblazers. The married duo, documentary filmmakers and co founders of Firelight Media, will receive BPM’s most pr prestigious honor at the PitchBLACK Awards on Thursday, April 30, at 6:30 p.m.
The PitchBLACK Awards ceremony also celebrates the winners of thePitchBLACK Forum,
the nation’s largest pitch competition for independent filmmakers and creative technologists creating Black content.
The Forum takes place Wednesday, April 29, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and creatives will take the stage to vie for up to $150,000 in production funding. Registration is required for the PitchBLACK Forum, which can be attended in person or virtually; tickets for the awards program go on sale via Ticketmaster in March. Sponsored by Netflix and PBS, PitchBLACK returns to The Apollo Stages at the Victoria in Harlem for the second year in a row.
Registration is required for the PitchBLACK Forum, which can be attended in person or
virtually; tickets for the awards program go on sale via Ticketmaster in March. Sponsored by Netflix and PBS , PitchBLACK returns to The Apollo Stages at the Victoria in Harlem for the second year in a row. Director Stanley Nelson and writer producer Marcia Smith have shaped modern documentary storytelling and the field around it, pairing revelatory films with lasting infrastructure that helps other artists thrive. Nelson is widely regarded as a leading chronicler of the African American experience in nonfiction film, work that has earned him a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, a Peabody recognizing his body of work and the National Medal in the Humanities. Smith has has helped advance documentary film making as a writer, producer and nonprofit leader, earning recognition for her work and leadership including a Writers Guild Award, a Muse Award and BlackStar’s Luminary Award. Through Firelight’s Documentary Lab, they have helped launch the careers of more than 100 nonfiction filmmakers of color and built Firelight into a nationally respected home for nonfiction work by and about communities of color.
BPM’s Trailblazer Award is presented to documentary filmmakers whose body of work and commitment to mentoring emerging filmmakers producing Black stories are exemplary. Past recipients include Michèle Stephenson & Joe Brewster (2019), Marco Williams (2021) Orlando Bagwell (2022), Yoruba Richen (2023), Sam Pollard (2024), and Lillian E. Benson (2025)
