Today, The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) and Lightbox, a multi-platform media company focused on creating high quality non-fiction programming for film, television and digital platforms, announced they will collaborate on a new initiative to foster diversity in the feature documentary arena.

To jumpstart this initiative, ABFF and Lightbox are announcing the ABFF’s inaugural Feature Documentary Competition and a national ‘call to action’ will be made the week leading up to the start of the 2017 American Black Film Festival, which runs June 14-18 in Miami Beach. The competition will be open to all African American documentary filmmakers and any documentary filmmakers interested in exploring non-fiction stories and themes that speak directly to the African American experience.

Selected films will be developed and produced by Lightbox and the newly formed ABFF Films division and executive produced by ABFF Ventures CEO Jeff Friday and Lightbox co-founders Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn. The first of the ABFF’s annual Feature Documentary Competition is being co-sponsored by National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, who will fully fund the development of the selected films.

Based in London and Los Angeles, Lightbox has produced several acclaimed documentaries that speak directly to the experience of people of color in America, including ESPN’s “Fantastic Lies“ about the 2006 Duke Lacrosse scandal; National Geographic’s “LA 92” that marked the 25th anniversary of the civil unrest in Los Angeles following the verdicts in the Rodney King beating case; and company is currently in production on the only authorized documentary about the life and legacy of the late Whitney Houston.

Details of the National Geographic/ 21st Century Fox sponsored competition and submission guidelines can be found at the ABFF’s website: www.ABFFVentures.com/films.

In addition, ABFF and Turner have announced Derege Harding and Darrin Dortch as the winners of the inaugural ABFF & Turner writing contest, which is part of a three-year partnership between Turner and ABFF to promote greater diversity and inclusion within the film industry. Turner received more than 250 submissions.

Harding’s script “Fulfillment” was selected for its “strong plot, writing and creative characters”; meanwhile Dortch was selected as the winner for comedy, for his strong writing and humor in his script “Short Changed.”

As part of their prize packages, both winners will receive a free trip to this year’s ABFF in Miami which takes place June 14-18, as well as a cash prize and the opportunity to meet with TBS and TNT programming executives.