Check Out These Five Uptown Film Festivals Happening Over the Next Month

The Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem.

It's film festival season again in Upper Manhattan, with a wide variety of screenings celebrating indie talents from the neighborhood and beyond.

Do you have your tickets yet?

31st New York African Film Festival: Convergence of Time

May 8-May 30

Maysles Documentary Center, 343 Malcolm X Boulevard between W 127th and W 128th Sts

Featuring more than 50 unique films telling stories from across Africa and the diaspora.

19th Annual Harlem International Film Festival at The Forum and Maysles Documentary Center

May 16-26

• The Forum at Columbia University, 605 W 125th St and Broadway

• Maysles Documentary Center, 343 Malcolm X Boulevard between W 127th and W 128th Sts

This film fest kicks off with a string of free screenings at Columbia's Forum, including a feature-length doc about a trio of inspirational women who climb Mount Kilimanjaro and a shorter one about jazz trumpeter Eddie Henderson. The event moves to the Maysles the following week for ticketed screenings of short and feature-length movies, including "My Motherland" from France, about a widow who takes in a young, homeless migrant from Afghanistan.

2024 Inwood Film Festival

May 23-26

Columbia University's Campbell Sports Center, 505 W 218th St and Broadway

Now in its sixth year, this uptown film festival has 30 movies lined up over three days, including short, long-short and feature-length productions by up-and-coming filmmakers from Inwood and beyond.

The 13th Annual People's Film Festival

May 30-June 1

AMC Magic Johnson Harlem 9, 2309 Frederick Douglass Blvd and W 124th St

There's quite the lineup of indie films, shorts, and documentaries here, including the world premiere of "The Black Spades," a documentary about one of the largest and most feared gangs in the Bronx.

Latino Film Market Festival

June 10-16

• The Kota Alliance, 43 St Nicholas Pl between W 152nd and W 153rd Sts

• Manhattan Neighborhood Network El Barrio Firehouse Community Media Center, 175 E 104th St between Third and Lexington Aves

• Producers Club Theaters, 358 W 44th St between Eighth and Ninth Aves

A weeklong deep dive into the work of up-and-coming Latino filmmakers, including features and shorts, plus panels and workshops.

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