Gene Siskel Film Center Announces 32nd Annual Black Harvest Film Festival Lineup

The Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago proudly announces the full lineup for the 32nd Annual Black Harvest Film Festival, Chicago’s annual showcase for Black cinema from across the diaspora. Featuring more than 75 films, including 60 Chicago premieres, nine feature films, and 10 shorts programs from 18 countries, this year’s Festival will take place at the Siskel Film Center Friday, November 6, through Sunday, November 15, with support from presenting sponsors Gilead Sciences and Good Chaos Foundation.

The Festival welcomes more than 50 filmmakers for post-screening conversations and special appearances, including acclaimed director, screenwriter, journalist, and author Walter Thompson-Hernández, journalist and documentary filmmaker David Greaves, and producer Liani Greaves. Throughout the Festival, audiences can experience exclusive screenings, thought-provoking dialogues, and celebratory receptions that honor more than three decades of Black cinema.

From the Block returns this year, featuring 10 short films from Chicago filmmakers that capture the city’s stories, spirit, and the artists who bring them to life. Other highlights include Voices of the Gods, a landmark work of ethnographic and cultural preservation centering Akan and Yoruba religious traditions as practiced and sustained in the United States, and Black Panther and The Sight Unseen, which pairs a 1968 archival short featuring the Black Panthers with Shawn Antoine II’s 2026 hybrid documentary exploring Black political history, faith, memory, and community across generations.

The Festival also welcomes If I Go Will They Miss Me?, featuring director Walter Thompson-Hernández, and Once Upon a Time in Harlem, with director David Greaves and producer Liani Greaves in person. The Festival closes Sunday, November 15, with Gordon Parks’ landmark 1984 film Solomon Northup’s Odyssey, an adaptation of Northup’s 1853 autobiography Twelve Years a Slave, chronicling his extraordinary fight to reclaim his freedom after being kidnapped and sold into slavery.

“Black cinema is a means to seeing; it is living practice, a body of work, a body like water—moving across generations, taking new form, and finding new channels, always connected to source. That current runs through this year’s program: the Opening Night shorts move through rest, friendship, grief, and surreal transformation, while Walter Thompson-Hernández’s If I Go, Will They Miss Me? and Gordon Parks’s Solomon Northup’s Odyssey place distinct artistic visions in conversation with the histories that shape us. Across the festival, experimentation meets tenderness, and interior worlds open onto collective questions. Black Harvest makes space for these films to meet an audience, deepen our relationality, and enter culture we make in continuum—never forgetting who we were as we vision what we are yet to be,” says Black Harvest Film Festival curator jada-amina.

Key Festival Events:

• Opening Night—Friday, November 6: Seven-time Emmy-nominated journalist and NBC Chicago anchor Evrod Cassimy will join beloved Chicago arts and culture reporter LeeAnn Trotter to emcee a showcase of vibrant short films.

• The Festival will present the Richard and Ellen Sandor Family Black Harvest Film Festival Prizes to Black Harvest filmmakers selected by a distinguished jury: Eddie Chambers, Goldabelle McComb Finn Distinguished Professor in Art History at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Briana Clearly, a Chicago-based filmmaker and founder of Filmmaker’s Mixtape; and Danielle A. Scruggs, Visuals Editor at NPR and founder of Black Women Directors. This year, the prize awards have increased to $5,000 for Best Feature (previously $2,500) and $2,500 for Best Short (previously $1,000). Each winning film will be shown during the Festival. Following the program, attendees are cordially invited to a reception in the lobby.

• Closing Night—Sunday, November 15: The Festival concludes with Gordon Parks’ Solomon Northup’s Odyssey, his landmark 1984 adaptation of Solomon Northup’s autobiography Twelve Years a Slave.

• Special Guests: The Festival proudly welcomes more than 50 filmmakers for insightful, compelling dialogues following Festival films, including:

  • If I Go Will They Miss Me? — Join director Walter Thompson-Hernández for a screening of his magical-realist feature, which follows a young Black father and his imaginative son as they navigate grief, housing precarity, and the enduring bonds of community in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. The screening will be followed by an on-stage conversation with Thompson-Hernández and the Visionary Award presentation.

  • Once Upon a Time in Harlem — Director David Greaves and producer Liani Greaves will appear in person for this documentary featuring extraordinary footage captured by master documentarian William Greaves at a legendary 1972 gathering of Harlem Renaissance luminaries. Organized by Greaves at Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse, the gathering documented an unforgettable conversation about Black artistic life. The screening will be followed by an on-stage conversation with David Greaves and Liani Greaves.

Festival passes and individual tickets are available for purchase. Audiences additionally can choose from two Festival pass options:

• Opening Night plus five screenings: $80 general public / $55 members

• Six regular screenings: $60 general public / $36 members

Siskel Film Center members enjoy discounted Black Harvest Film Festival passes and tickets, along with year-round savings on films and special events. Membership also connects film lovers to a community while supporting the nonprofit Siskel Film Center and programs like Black Harvest.

See the full program here. Note: Showtimes and guest appearances are subject to change.

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