Silent Partner has won Best Feature Narrative at the 30th anniversary edition of Urbanworld in New York City, Black Man Films announced. The film, directed by Eric Branco in his feature directorial debut, premiered to a sold-out house October 15 and received an encore screening the following day, the only feature at this year’s festival given a repeat screening.
The win puts Silent Partner ahead of runner-up Three Colors: Pan-African, winner of the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Narrative Feature at this year’s American Black Film Festival, and honorable mention 93′ Til, which also premiered at ABFF. Black Man Films co-founder and COO Salma Qarnain said the response from the Urbanworld community, from the sold-out premiere through the encore screening to the award itself, meant everything to the team, adding that the goal in making the film was to spark conversation among audiences sharing the same room.
The film follows a Black couple whose marriage is tested when the husband, a defense attorney on the cusp of making partner, takes on a controversial case drawing national attention. The Tony- and Emmy-winning ensemble includes Roderick Lawrence as Silas Jones, Susan Heyward as Kosi Jones, Eric Nelsen as Jace MacMillan, Jeff Perry as Jason MacMillan, and Shoshana Bean as prosecuting attorney Torrey Minter. Qarnain produced alongside Lawrence for Black Man Films, with Susan L. Taylor, the longtime Essence editor-in-chief, and Khephra Burns backing the project through Film 4 Good Fund.
The World Premiere red carpet drew a wide circle of supporters beyond the core cast, including cinematographer Matheus Bastos, a 2026 ASC Rising Star, costume designer Engie Hassan, and producers Monique Coleman, Chi Mancho, and Fred Tolliver, reflecting the kind of cross-industry support independent films centered on Black storytelling often rely on to build momentum outside traditional studio marketing budgets.
Founded in 2020 by Lawrence and Harvard Business School graduate Qarnain, Black Man Films is built around producing Black, Brown, and POC-centered stories focused on triumph rather than trauma, with a stated mission of building lasting infrastructure for the next generation of POC storytellers.
With a sold-out premiere, a rare encore screening, and now a top festival prize all happening within the same week, Silent Partner enters its next phase of distribution with some of the strongest possible momentum an independent film can generate at a single festival.