The Festival
AFRIFF turned fifteen on Sunday. This edition runs until Saturday 7 November under the theme Frames of the Future: Africa’s Creative Intelligence, with 135 films selected, 23 of them features, and the Globe Awards closing out the week. Screenings run from 1 to 6 November at Landmark on Victoria Island, and for the first time they are ticketed, so it pays to choose with care. Nigerian films bookend the whole thing, which feels right for a festival that started in Lagos.
The Features
Lady
opened the festival on Sunday night. Her debut follows a Lagos taxi driver ferrying a group of sex workers through the night, and it comes home after winning the Special Jury Award for Acting Ensemble at Sundance and screening at the Berlinale and BFI London. If you missed opening night, it screens again on Thursday at 1pm. Closing night on Friday belongs to It’s the Blackness, the directorial debut of actor Hakeem Kae-Kazim, written and produced by Dapo Oshiyemi, about two graduates who find that master’s degrees cannot protect them from unemployment, complicated love lives and family pressure.
Tonight at 8pm you can catch Abeni from Esse Akwawa and Samuel Olasehinde, about a young woman who learns the sacred craft of forging, long reserved for men, shot at Africhatta Film Village in Oyo State. Jide Okeke’s Which Way screens on Tuesday at 8pm, and Vincho Nchogu’s One Woman One Bra, a Kenyan and Nigerian production that won the Sutherland Award at BFI London and is Kenya’s Oscar submission, plays on Friday at 4:30pm.
The ICU
Segilola Ogidan’s hospital thriller The I.C.U. has its world premiere at the festival, and Orobosa Ikponmwen’s family drama Adanne is also in the programme.
The Documentaries
Hope is a Word
Hope Is a Word, executive produced by Femi Odugbemi, follows poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey as he runs writing workshops with young people from the Niger Delta. Daro Umaigba’s Suya: A Spicy Piece of Home was filmed over seven years across 12 countries and uses our favourite roadside snack to tell a bigger story about Nigerians abroad, while Blessing Bulus’s short Mi Tazi follows a young artist back to Nok and the clay sculpting that once held her family’s memory.
The Shorts
The shorts programme is where Nigerian filmmakers are most visible this year. Kaelo Iyizoba’s The Spectacular Death of Prisca, starring Rita Dominic and picked for an honourable mention at TIFF, screens on Wednesday at 7pm in the Special Presentation section, the same afternoon as Chimereogo Chiagozie Nwoke-Chima’s Waiting For My Sister at 4:30pm and Samuel Adeoye’s Serubawon at 3pm.
Ramat
Thursday is the big Nigerian shorts day. Steve Babaeko’s Ramat at 4pm is set in an army barracks on the morning General Murtala Mohammed was killed in 1976, seen through a little boy watching his soldier father cry for the first time. Horla Manuvor Jr.’s Ọ̀bẹ̀ (Soup) follows at 4:30pm, and at 7:30pm comes A Tray of Locust Beans, Orobosa Ikponmwen’s short for Lufodo Productions with Joke Silva in the cast. Favour Babalola’s Ife Ati Iku (Love and Death) closes the run on Friday at 2:45pm.
Why It Matters
It’s the Blackness
What strikes me about this year’s list is how many of these films have travelled before coming home. A Nigerian title picking up awards at Sundance, Toronto or London is no longer rare, and AFRIFF is the week Lagos gets to sit in the room with them and decide what it thinks. The festival has also teamed up with Pulse Nigeria on a new award for emerging filmmakers, which puts some weight behind the people at the start of the queue.
If you are in Lagos this week, pick two and go.
Sources
ShockNG, “AFRIFF 2026 Must Watch Feature Films: Your Complete Festival Guide”, 29 October 2026
ShockNG, “AFRIFF 2026 Short Films You Shouldn’t Miss: A Complete Screening Guide”, 29 October 2026
What Kept Me Up, “19 Films to Have on Your Radar at AFRIFF 2026”, 30 October 2026
What Kept Me Up, “AFRIFF 2026 Names ‘Lady’ Opening Film, Adds Paid Ticketing and New Award Category”, October 2026
ThisDay, “Olive Nwosu’s ‘Lady’ Set to Open AFRIFF 2026”, 26 October 2026
City Post, “AFRIFF 2026 Unveils Programme for 15th Edition, Celebrating Africa’s Creative Intelligence”, October 2026
Pulse Nigeria, Pulse List carousel of Nigerian films at AFRIFF 2026, Instagram, 2 November 2026