Programme
Friday 11 September
Opening Event
Festival Opening
Friday 11 September 2026 18:00β18:10
Welcome to the Watch Africa Film Festival 2026. Opening remarks introducing the festival, programme and weekend ahead.
Feature Film
My Fatherβs Shadow
18:00 Watch Africa Film Festival 2026 x Reel Futures: My Fatherβs Shadow + panel discussion
Two young brothers explore Lagos with their estranged father during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, witnessing both the city's magnitude and their father's daily struggles as political unrest threatens their journey home.
Party
Akwaaba Launch Party
Friday 11 September 2026 20:15β21:45 Concourse
Rooted in Ghanaian culture, Akwaaba means βwelcomeβ and embodies the spirit of hospitality, warmth and belonging. The official launch party for Watch Africa Film Festival 2026 welcomes audiences, filmmakers, partners and guests into the festival weekend.
Saturday 12 September
Market
Mansa Market
SAT 12 SEPT & SUN 13 SEPT β 10:00β18:00 β CONCOURSE
Vendors, food, craft and textiles. Inspired by Mansa Musaβs pilgrimage and the international cultural exchange that journey created.
Shorts Programme
WAFF Short Films Finalists 2026
SAT 12 SEPT 10:00 Location: Screen 2
Madame Morel (RaΓ―ssa Ioussouf, France) and Do You Know Who I Am? (Paulo IdalΓ©cio, Angola), with QR audience voting open throughout.
Food & Discussion
Short Snacks
Sun 13 Sept Β· 11:30 Β· Cinema Foyer
After a curated selection of films, enjoy a range of African snacks and discuss what youβve just watched. Good conversation happens over good food.
Family / PG
Liyana
Sat 12 Sept Β· 11:30 Β· Eswatini
Five children in the Kingdom of Eswatini turn past traumas into the tale of a Swazi girl who embarks on a dangerous mission to save her twin brothers.
Feature Film
Luxor
Sat 12 Sept 13:10 β 85 minutes β Screen 2
Zeina Durra Β· Egypt Β· 2019. A British aid worker returns to the ancient city of Luxor and crosses paths with a former lover she canβt quite leave behind.
Workshop
African Storytelling Workshop
Saturday 12 September 13:30β14:30 β Cinema Foyer
With Bevin Magama. Guided exercises and creative prompts explore how stories connect us, preserve culture and inspire change. Open to all experience levels.
WAFF x Iris Prize
Dreamers
Saturday 12 September β 14:55 β Screen 2
Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor Β· UK Β· 2025. A Nigerian migrant held at a UK asylum removal centre searches for the will to fight the system. Fundraiser screening with a panel discussion.
Workshop
African Dance Workshop
Sat 12 Sept Β· 15:00 β 15:00β16:00 Β· First Space
With Idrissa Camara. Drawing on West African dance traditions and contemporary performance, participants of all levels connect with live rhythms and movement.
Animation
Best of Africa 2025
Sat 12 Sept Β· 16:30 Β· Screen 1
WAFF x Cardiff Animation Fest x CTIAF. A curated selection of African animation shorts from across the continent and diaspora.
Feature Film
Omen
Sat 12 Sept Β·16:50 Β· 90 min. Screen 2
Baloji Β· Belgium / DR Congo Β· 2023. Four people considered witches and sorcerers find a way to help each other escape their fate.
Documentary Β· WAFF Finalist
Blue Burning
Sat 12 Sept Β· 18:40 Β·90 min. Screen 2
Janet Solomon Β· South Africa Β· 2024. A documentary response to the push to maximise South African offshore petroleum potential. QR audience voting open.
Film Screening Β· 15
Atlantics
Sat 12 Sept Β· 20:35 Β· 104 min Β· Screen 2
In a suburb of Dakar, unpaid construction workers decide to leave the country by ocean for a better future. Among them is Souleiman, the lover of Ada, promised to another. Mati Diopβs Atlantics won the Grand Prix at Cannes.
Sunday 13 September
Documentary Β· WAFF Finalist
War Child Chose Science
Sun 13 Sept Β·10:00am β 60 Minutes β Screen 2
PΓ€ivi Marja Elina Kapiainen-Heiskanen Β· Finland / Sierra Leone Β· 2025. The story of Paul Bangura, abducted for 11 months during Sierra Leoneβs civil war, who became convinced education was the way forward.
Shorts Programme
CCW x UrbanStamp Showcase
Sun 13 Sept Β·11:50 β Screen 2
Diaspora in Wales shorts including The Pocket, Ajoke, Ghost Conversations and Unsent Letter β plus the 24hr Film Challenge winner.
Feature Film
Memory of Princess Mubi
Sun 13 Sept Β·12:20 β 80 minutes β Screen 2
Damien Hauser Β· Kenya / Switzerland Β· 2023. In 2093, filmmaker Kuve documents a war that resurrected ancient kingdoms β and meets an actress who challenges everything he thought he knew.
Talk
Unmasking the Mask
Sun 13 Sept Β· 14:30 Β· Cinema Foyer
With Adeola Dewis. An interactive exploration of the stories, symbolism and traditions behind African masks, and their cultural and creative power.
Documentary Β· WAFF Finalist
The Banjo Boys
Sun 13 Sept Β· 16:00 β 76 minutes + 30 minute Q&A
Johan Nayar Β· Malawi Β· 2025. The electrifying rise of a Malawian duo who built their own instruments from nothing. Followed by a Q&A.
Workshop
An Interactive Sound & Story Workshop with Suntou Susso
Saturday 12 September Β· 18:30 Β· First Space
Suntou Susso. A hands-on session with West African instruments and rhythms β open to all experience levels.
Classic
Black Girl (La Noire deβ¦)
Sun 13 Sept Β·18:40 β 70 minutes β Screen 2
Ousmane SembΓ¨ne Β· Senegal Β· 1966. A Senegalese woman takes a job as governess for a French family β and finds her dignity tested by racism.
Ceremony
TUZO Awards Ceremony
13 September β 20:00 β Screen 1.
Awards for Best Feature, Best Documentary, Best Short and the Audience Choice Award, chosen in part by your votes across the weekend.
Family Activity
Body and Face Painting Workshop
Sunday 13 September 2026 12:00 First Space 120 minutes
Drop-in face painting with Paskaline for families and festival-goers across the middle of the day.
Venue
Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
All festival screenings, workshops and events take place at Chapter Arts Centre, Market Road, Canton, Cardiff. Screenings run in Cinema 1 and Cinema 2, with workshops in the Cinema Foyer and Dance Studio, and the market on the Concourse.
Follow the Festival
See the latest festival moments, announcements and conversations on Instagram.
THANK YOU ππ¬ Watch Africa Film Festival 2026 has come to a close.
Three days of films, workshops, conversations, music, creativity and community, and we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who made it possible.
To every filmmaker who trusted us with their work, every artist and facilitator who shared their practice, every performer, speaker, panellist, vendor, volunteer and every member of the team working behind the scenes, thank you.
To everyone who bought a ticket, came to a workshop, explored Mansa Market, joined a conversation, watched something unfamiliar, stayed for a Q&A, danced with us or simply walked through the doors and became part of the weekend, thank you for showing up for African cinema in Wales.
A very special thank you to @chapterartscentre for being the home of Watch Africa Film Festival 2026. From the cinema screens and workshop spaces to the concourse, market and celebrations, thank you to the Chapter team for helping us bring three days of African film, culture and community together under one roof.
And a huge thank you to our funders, supporters and partners, whose support makes this work possible:
@ffilmcymruwales
@bfinetwork
@ssapwales
@cultureconnect.wales
@urbanstamphub
@chapterartscentre
Watch Africa exists to create space for the breadth of African and diaspora stories, while building connections between Africa, its diaspora and audiences here in Wales.
This weekend reminded us exactly why those spaces matter.
The festival may be over, but the stories continue. β€οΈ
Thank you for being part of Watch Africa 2026.
EXPRESS YOUR AFRICA.
Africaβs stories through Welsh screens
β οΈ IMPORTANT TIME CHANGE
CCW Γ UrbanStamp presents: Diaspora in Wales will now begin at 11:20am today.
Please note the updated start time if youβre joining us.
We sincerely apologise for the late change and any inconvenience this may cause, and thank you for your understanding.
π Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
β° NEW TIME: 11:20AM
See you shortly! π¬
THE WAFF 2026 AWARDS ππ¬ Weβve watched the films. Weβve shared the stories. Now itβs time to celebrate the filmmakers behind them.
Tomorrow night, we close Watch Africa Film Festival 2026 with our Awards Ceremony, recognising this yearβs winners and finalists across short film, documentary and our Audience Award.
And the best bit? Itβs FREE to attend.
The evening will also feature live performances from @saynizzzy and @theboyisgreat , with Afrobeats throughout the celebration.
Come dressed, come celebrate, come and close out WAFF 2026 with us. π
π
Sunday 13 September
β° 8:30pm
π Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
π FREE TO ATTEND
Film. Culture. Community. Celebration.
Express Your Africa.
DAY 2 IS ON π¬π
Watch Africa Film Festival continues TODAY at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.
Weβre into Day 2 and thereβs still plenty happening across Chapter today, with African cinema, workshops, conversation and community all under one roof.
On screen today: Liyana, Luxor, Dreamers, Omen, Blue Burning and Atlantics, alongside our WAFF Short Film Finalists.
Plus, get involved beyond the cinema with our African Storytelling Workshop with Bevin Magama, African Dance Workshop with Idrissa Camara, and explore Mansa Market throughout the day.
Some events are ticketed, some are Pay What You Can, so if youβre wondering what to do with your Saturday, come down and join us.
π Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
π
TODAY, Saturday 12 September
π¬ Films β’ Workshops β’ Mansa Market β’ Community
Weβre here all day.
Express Your Africa.
THE POCKET π¬
When the night is over, a rhythm remains. Written and directed by @rosemary.adjoa.dery , The Pocket brings a drummer, a singer and an unexpected presence together through music in the quiet aftermath of an evening. For a moment, they find the pocket, that rare space where rhythm, voice and movement fall perfectly into place.
But every rhythm carries a history.
As the music shifts, so does the space between them. The Pocket explores identity, creativity and the fragile line between inspiration and appropriation, asking what happens when a shared artistic language is reinterpreted and pulled away from its origins.
Screening as part of Diaspora in Wales, our collection of short films by African diaspora filmmakers based in Wales.
π
Sunday 13 September
β° 11:50am
π Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
π Pay What You Can
Walk-in available
Express Your Africa.
Watch Africa Film Festival 2026 starts TODAY.
Three days of African cinema, stories, workshops, music, conversation, creativity and community take over Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff from 11β13 September.
We open tonight with My Fatherβs Shadow, followed by a panel discussion with Reel Futures, Femi and Emmanuel Bajulaye, before we move into AKWAABA, our official launch party with DJ Samandollar.
Then across Saturday and Sunday, thereβs a full weekend of feature films, WAFF finalists, Welsh premieres, animation, workshops, Mansa Market, live performance and our 2026 Awards Ceremony.
Whether youβve already got your tickets or youβre only just discovering us, thereβs still time to join us.
π Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
π
11β13 September 2026
π Tickets available now via Chapter + selected workshops/screenings via Eventbrite
Africaβs stories through Welsh screens.
EXPRESS YOUR AFRICA.
ATLANTICS π¬
A love story haunted by everything that has been left behind.
On the outskirts of Dakar, a group of young construction workers have gone months without pay. With little hope of a future, they leave Senegal by sea. Among them is Souleiman, the lover of Ada, who has been promised to another man.
But after they disappear across the Atlantic, something strange begins to happen back home.
Directed by Mati Diop, Atlantics moves between romance, migration, grief and the supernatural, turning a story of young people searching for a better future into something haunting and unexpected.
Winner of the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the film also became the first film directed by a Black woman to compete for the Palme dβOr.
π
Saturday 12 September
β° 8:35pm
π Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
π 15 | 104 mins
π Tickets via Chapter
THE BANJO BOYS π¬ | WELSH PREMIERE
From Malawi to stages around the world.
The Banjo Boys follows the extraordinary journey of Madalitso Band, whose homemade instruments, infectious performances and unmistakable sound have taken them from playing on the streets of Malawi to international audiences.
Directed by @johanrnayar, the documentary is a story of music, friendship and creativity, and what can happen when something deeply local travels far beyond where it began.
Weβre excited to bring The Banjo Boys to Wales for its Welsh Premiere, where it is also a Watch Africa Film Festival 2026 Documentary Finalist.
And the conversation continues after with Q&A with director Johan Nayar, hosted by Tim TysonShor.
π
Sunday 13 September
β° 4:00pm
π Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff
π¬ PG | 76 mins + Director Q&A
π Tickets via Chapter
Come for the film, stay for the story behind it.
Express Your Africa.
