Black International Cinema Berlin celebrates 40th anniversary with production themed Peace! Now! Always! Please!

The Black International Cinema Berlin 2025 celebrates its 40th edition, a remarkable milestone for a festival internationally recognized for its longstanding commitment to intercultural dialogue, social awareness, and artistic diversity.

Produced and directed by Prof. Donald Muldrow Griffith / Fountainhead® Tanz Théâtre, in association with The Collegium – Forum & Television Program Berlin, “Footprints in the Sand?” ExhibitionBerlin and Cultural Zephyr e.V., the festival presents from November 21-23, 2025 at Marlene-Dietrich-Kinosaal at Rathaus Schöneberg Berlin a diverse program of films, art, and discussions centered on peace, humanity, and mutual understanding.

Taking place within the framework of CrossKultur 2025 and in cooperation with ALEX – Open Channel Berlin, the Black International Cinema Berlin continues its longstanding non-profit commitment to fostering respect, inclusion, and creativity.

With this year’s theme Peace! Now! Always! Please!, the festival calls for empathy, awareness, and peace – values essential in today’s challenging times.

The 40th anniversary invites audiences, artists, and filmmakers to celebrate together, reflect, and engage with new perspectives.

A space for encounter, inspiration, and hope.

The Black International Cinema Berlin has its origins in West Berlin in 1986. At that time, Fountainhead® Tanz Théâtre produced and directed Europe’s first Historic, three-week Black Cultural Festival. Founded by Prof. Donald Muldrow Griffith, the festival emerged in response to social challenges and was created to provide space for the voices, perspectives, and experiences of Black individuals and communities that were often overlooked in public discourse.

Originally conceived as an interdisciplinary cultural event and a forum for film art, exchange, and artistic diversity, the festival remains interdisciplinary and intercultural today, fostering dialogue among different communities, forms of expression, and lived experiences. At the same time, it serves as a platform for transnational cultural diplomacy, rooted in encounter, attentive listening, and mutual respect.

Through the ongoing work of its team – grounded in idealism, commitment, and a strong sense of responsibility – the Black International Cinema Berlin has become an established and enduring part of Berlin’s cultural landscape, continuing to embody its guiding principle: Art as a bridge, encounter as the foundation.

For more information and program visit https://black-international-cinema.com/BIC25/