The American Black Film Festival (ABFF) has announced the first annual ABFF Greenlighters Academy, which is a new educational and career development initiative for African American college students who are interested in pursuing executive careers in film and television.

This is a pipeline program that nurtures future film and television executives who will be leaders of this industry in years to come. 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. Through his company, Jenkins Entertainment Group, Terrence has developed and executive produced original content for both MTV and VH1. He’s also starred in such films as “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.

Jenkins 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.

“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.

“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.

Open to African American students pursuing all majors, who are sophomores or above in a four-year bachelor degree program at an accredited college or university, with a current GPA of 3.0 or above, the application submission rules for the ABFF Greenlighters Academy are available online now at http://www.abff.com/abff-greenlighters-academy/. The submission deadline is March 31, 2017.

Good luck!

ABFF Greenlighters Academy

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