Since its introduction, the Newark Black Film Festival (NBFF) has provided a forum for writers, directors, producers, performers, and film patrons who enjoy African American and African Diaspora cinema. The goal of the Festival is to present programs that reflect the full diversity of the black experience both past and present, and encompass a wide range of forums and formulas from documentary to the avant-garde. Since its inception, NBFF has screened over 800 films to an audience of almost 180,000 adults and youth, including the work of young, independent, Black filmmakers, such as Spike Lee, Ayoka Chenzira, Warrington Hudlin, and Reginald Hudlin. Past participants include luminaries such as James Earl Jones, Danny Glover, Pam Grier, Donald Bogle, Richard Wesley, Euzhan Palcy, Ava DuVernay and S. Epatha Merkerson.

The NBFF started in 1974 with a touring black film festival that was put together by filmmaker Oliver Franklin who worked at the Annenberg Center for Communication, Art & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. The late Gus Henningburg, who was then the Executive Director of the Greater Newark Urban Coalition, learned about the festival and proposed it to The Newark Museum of Art.

In 1976 when the touring festival was no longer available, the Museum decided to produce the Newark Black Film Festival and established a selection committee, whose volunteer members represented important institutions in the community.