The Black in Gaming Foundation's 9th Annual Awards Show is set to honor the trailblazers, creators, and innovators shaping the future of games — and the celebration starts well before the first trophy is handed out.
The BIG Foundation’s Executive Director is Trinidad Hermida Black and every March, when the gaming industry descends on San Francisco for GDC week, one event stands apart, not for the games it celebrates, but for the people behind them. The Black in Gaming (BIG) Foundation is back with its 9th Annual BIG Awards, and nine years in, the milestone feels just as urgent and necessary as it did at the very beginning.
This year the awards ceremony is only part of the story. What BIG has built around it is something much larger: a full day of community, programming, and celebration that kicks off with BIG Fest before the trophies ever hit the stage.
From Celebration to Movement
When the BIG Foundation launched its awards show nearly a decade ago, the mission was straightforward: see Black people in gaming and say so out loud. In an industry where representation has long been an afterthought, that simple act of recognition carried real weight.
Nine years later, the scope has grown considerably. The BIG Awards now operates under the Foundation's Advocacy Pillar, a framework that goes beyond handing out hardware and into actively confronting the systemic barriers that affect marginalized talent across the gaming ecosystem. Alongside that evolution, BIG Fest emerged as the essential daytime counterpart to the evening ceremony: a free, all-day event held at the same venue, open to anyone (no GDC badge required). BIG Fest is built around panels, game demos, and networking designed to connect Black professionals with real opportunity.
Together, the two events tell a complete story. BIG Fest is where the conversations happen about the future of gaming education, about building sustainable careers, about what it means to be a Black composer, designer, or executive in this industry right now. By the time the awards ceremony begins that evening, the room is already charged. The trophies are the punctuation on a day's worth of proof.
A Legacy Written in Honorees
Look back at the BIG Awards' roster of past honorees and you get a clear picture of how wide the Foundation's definition of excellence really is. At the 8th Annual show, Nadji Jeter, the voice and motion-capture artist behind Miles Morales in Marvel's Spider-Man 2, took home the Excellence in Performance Award. Indie developer Xalavier Nelson Jr. of Strange Scaffold was recognized for his boundary-pushing work. Freelance composer Chase Bethea earned Excellence in Artistry. Jay-Ann Lopez of Black Girl Gamers took Excellence in Media. Jason Young of Sony Interactive Entertainment received the Jerry Lawson Lifetime Achievement Award, named for the pioneering Black engineer behind the first cartridge-based gaming console.
What to Expect at the 9th Annual
The 9th Annual BIG Awards takes place during GDC week, March 9–13, 2026, at the Children's Creativity Museum in San Francisco.Founding sponsor Sony Interactive Entertainment returns alongside the Foundation for another year.
The day begins with BIG Fest. Past editions have featured panels spanning game design, the business of gaming, career development, music, and education all led by executives and professionals who are actively shaping those conversations. Game demos and networking fill out the afternoon. Then, as the sun goes down, the ceremony begins: the room full of the same people who spent the day building each other up, now gathering to celebrate what that work actually looks like.
Honorees and nominees for the 9th Annual are yet to be announced. If the past eight years are any indication, expect the full range of the industry to be represented: developers, creators, executives, composers, educators, and community builders alike.
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