During the third annual HBCU First Look Film Festival hosted on Howard University’s campus Nov. 7-8, the festival’s founder, alum Sheila Eldridge (B.A. ’75), announced a historic partnership with the streaming platform Tubi to launch its newest channel featuring films created by HBCU students and alumni. 

The “HBCU First Look” channel, set to premiere on Tubi in February 2026, will feature 100 films created by filmmakers from HBCUs throughout the country. The channel will include films from the festival’s 2025 film challenge winners, including Howard alum Destiny Stubbs (B.A. ’25) who received second place in the competition for her documentary “STRUT the Yard.”

“It took about a year to get this deal done,” Eldridge told The Dig. “I’m glad that Tubi was open to it when we went to them. Student filmmakers will be able to learn the full process of being able to put a film onto one of these FAST channel programs. With this deal, everyone will win. We were able to create a revenue model so that students also can partake in some of the revenue. That was important to me because we want to see the next Spike Lee, the next Ryan Coogler, or Ava Duvernay.”  

Howard’s Impact 

The First Look channel on Tubi will include a selection of films submitted to the 2025 HBCU First Look Film Festival. The festival, Eldridge shared, garnered its largest turn out this year since its inception in 2023. The film and entertainment showcase, in partnership with Howard's Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, was designed to connect emerging HBCU filmmakers and creators with industry professionals.  

“This film festival is a career program. The whole concept for it was to create a career opportunity where I can bring HBCU alums and allies together with HBCU students to build a network,” Eldridge explained. “There’s no pipeline that we have. Alumni should be giving back and not just monetarily but giving back their knowledge and their time.” 

Eldridge, a D.C. native whose career spans nearly four decades, was a student in Howard’s School of Communications and credits her relationship with her mentor Cathy Hughes in jumpstarting her career. In 2016, the school was renamed as the Cathy Hughes School of Communications in honor of Hughes’ impact. 

“I used to babysit Hughes’ son [Alfred Liggins III] at the WHUR radio station, and now he’s the CEO of Urban One,” Eldridge lovely quipped.  

As a student, Eldridge worked at the Howard-operated WHUR-FM radio station which sparked her passion for broadcast radio. In 2008, Eldridge purchased five radio stations in Augusta, Georgia. Prior to that, she established her marketing, public relations, and special events company, Miles Ahead Entertainment and Broadcasting. Her company’s Café Mocha Radio program, hosted by comedian Loni Love, rapper Yoyo, and broadcaster Angelique Perrin, is syndicated in more than 30 markets across the country. With Miles Ahead, Eldridge has worked with entities such as the Apollo Theatre, Coca Cola, Essence, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.  

As her career evolved over time, Eldridge has held firm to her connection to the university. She teamed up with former Howard classmates to develop the First Look Film Festival and has hosted the festival on the university’s campus since it began.  

“The beauty of going to Howard is that it’s right here in the nation’s capital, and it’s such a cross section and melting pot of people,” said Eldridge. “I was able to maintain these lifelong friendships on the personal and on the business side that came from my years at Howard, that’s so important. Four of the people that work on the festival were my roommates and classmates at Howard.” 

Eldridge has made it a point to employ current Howard students and recent alumni, such as Alana McClellan (B.A. ’23), who currently works as an associate producer at Miles Ahead and helped to organize this year’s film festival.  

“I’ve been very blessed, and I believe in the philosophy that if you’ve been blessed then you have to be a blessing to other people, which is what I hope that this film festival and this initiative will be able to do. I hope it will help propel so many young people,” she shared. 

Eldridge also made note of the importance of TV and film studios “understanding the value of this market. Corporate America is not as engaged as they should be in understanding the value of these students and the value of HBCUs to their products. They are the next consumers and the people that will be changing the game in the next five years.” 

Elevating Future Storytellers 

Howard alum and actress Lynn Whitfield (B.F.A. ’75) was one of the notable figures who took part in the 2025 First Look Film Festival, which included dozens of industry-specific discussions and events. Whitfield joined actor and singer Keith Robinson for the fireside chat “A Thin Line Between Love & Success” in the Blackburn Center Nov. 7. The conversation, moderated by Cori Murray of Ebony Magazine, examined how the actors have navigated their respective careers and the work they’re doing to elevate the next generation of storytellers.  

“Generational legacy is success to me,” Whitfield shared with the audience. “I appreciate what I have accomplished, but I’m not resting on laurels. I’m sitting here in this room with people under 25 and some people well over 25 — I am still relevant, and you still care about me, that’s success to me. My success will be to keep the longevity going until I’m on my way out here.” 

Whitfield also shared with participants that part of her activism as an actor includes not “dumbing down my characters for my audience … I’m very intentional, whether I may discuss it with a director or not, that I want to fill the camera with nuance.” 

Whitfield was among the honorees recognized during the 15th annual Salute THEM Awards, an event created by Eldridge’s Café Mocha Radio. The awards ceremony, held in the Howard Theatre Nov. 6, kicked off the First Look Film Festival in celebration of Black storytellers.  

“A film festival where filmmakers are being amplified by students [is] so important because there’s so much activism in storytelling,” said Whitfield during the Salute THEM ceremony. “It is an amazing place to be a warrior, it’s an amazing place to be a philosopher, an entertainer, a comedian, all of those things. But through all of it, we have a possibility to serve humanity through storytelling — and maybe make a lot of money from it.” 

Director and producer Ryan Coogler took part in the evening with his acceptance of the “I Aspire Global Impact Award.” Actress and producer Marsai Martin, who served as the festival’s 2025 Creative Ambassador, joined The Breakfast Club’s Loren Lorosa for a conversation on how the star has evolved in her career since she began acting at age five.  

“When I created [the movie] ‘Little’ with my family, that was the peak of everything,” Martin shared during discussion. “Being able to see something me and my parents created in our living room turn into something where we go to Atlanta and filmed for three months … seeing your dream really come to reality is very surreal for me.” 

Martin advised emerging filmmakers and entertainers in attendance that the university’s campus “is the best place to connect and not just with fellow students. You have legends here that are willing to talk to you and have conversations … it starts here. Promote your stuff, sometimes it comes with embarrassment. You have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Don’t be afraid. It’s already going to be a ‘no’ if you don’t do it.”

Feature photo by Adriana Fraser. Additional photos by Cedric Mobley, Howard University Office of University Communications, unless otherwise noted.