AFRICAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
September 19–20, 2026
In collaboration with the French Institute in Belgrade, the organization Empatheatre, the production company Geração 80 (G80), the Serbian-Moroccan Friendship Association, along with film directors Mohammed Amine Ben Loulou and Mirko Rucnov, the Museum of African Art is organizing a weekend-long African Short Film Festival.
Over the course of two days, visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy up to 40 minutes of short films from different parts of Africa. The films span diverse genres and address both historical and contemporary themes: the struggle for independence, important historical figures, wars, as well as family dramas, women’s fears and films in which children play leading roles. A special segment of the Festival consists of animated films for young audiences, introducing children to African stories and conveying important lessons.
On the first day of the Festival, there will also be a conversation “Who Has the Right to Imagine the Future? “ with Ivana Nimoh, producer of the poetic film Farewell to the Wind by Mirko Rucnov, inspired by the life of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian leader and independence activist.
The language of the Festival is English, and all films are subtitled in English.
Admission is free, with mandatory registration (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).
PROGRAMME
SATURDAY, 19th September 2026
I BLOCK – PATH TO INDEPENDENCE
14 h
Black Panters of Algeria, 27 min (Algeria, 2023), documentary
By Mohammed Amine Ben Lulu, Khalil Ibrahimi
The film explores the unique relationship between the African American liberation movement and the Algerian Revolution, highlighting Algeria's role as an international centre for liberation movements and the legacy of the Black Panther Party in Algeria. Through archival material and interviews with historians, activists, artists, and former members of the movement, the documentary sheds light on an important yet often overlooked chapter of global history.
14.30 h
Farewell to the Wind, 15 min (Ghana/USA, 2021), poetic film
By Mirko Rucnov
Farewell to the Wind is a short film in the form of a visual poem about Kwame, an artist who explores the revolutionary past of Ghana and the legacy of the Non-Aligned Movement that defined his father’s generation. The protagonist undertakes a dangerous journey by the migrant route, leaving the unsettling question for those who stay behind. The film offers an internal gaze into the artist’s soul, which poetically combines fragments of collective memory and personal introspections.
14.45 h
Who Has the Right to Imagine the Future?
Talk with Ivana Nimoh, Producer of Farewell to the Wind
Following the screening of Farewell to the Wind, we will reflect on the film's questions of memory, migration and belonging through the legacy of the Non-Aligned Movement. Beginning with the vision shared by Ghana, Yugoslavia and other newly independent nations in 1961, the conversation tackles what it means to inherit a future imagined by another generation and what future we might imagine for ourselves. The discussion will connect the history of Non-Alignment with the possibilities and uncertainties of our present moment.
Conversation moderated by Emilia Epštajn (MAU)
***
II BLOCK – STRUGGLE AND TOGETHERNESS
16 h
Bazigaga, 27 min [(Rwanda), UK/ France/ Belgium, 2022], drama
By Jo Ingabire Moyse
Rwanda, 1994. As the genocide rages on, Bazigaga takes in a father and his daughter, both hunted by the militia.
16.30 h
Karingana - The Dead Tell no Tales, 10 min (Mozambique, 2020), drama
By Inadelso Cossa
After 30 years in the exile of death and oblivion Nkomba Yengo returns to his native village to listen to the fantastic stories of old Yamba, but he finds him deaf and mute, and a village in amnesia and traumatized by the Civil War. And he realizes he has no one else to tell him stories but cinema.
16.45 h
Lucy in the Sky with Traffic Lights, 16 min (Angola, 2018), poetic film
By Gretel Marín, Ery Claver
A being that has only bodily existence, an object used to satisfy needs and desires. On the screen, Lúcia preserves only a distant look that hides screams, fears and explosions. She is always ostracized and silenced by the sexist society that at no time considers her opinion and desires. Lucia is the woman’s silent report associated with a role or function without the right to be, to think or to express opinions.
17 h
Microbus, 8 min (Egypt, 2021), drama
By Maggie Kamal
On just another regular day in Cairo, Egypt, 18-year-old Nour gets a call from her brother that he will no longer be able to pick her up. To avoid being late to work, Nour has to take a microbus, not knowing that this trip will forever change her.
17.10 h
Entropya, 24 min (Morocco, 2013), drama
By Yassine Marco Maroccou
A man is getting back home at dusk. The dinner table is set. It's a special occasion, his 20th wedding anniversary. His wife is quietly pruning her roses. While they are looking back on their life, a dramatic fall is coming... The movie is focused on the mismatches created by a complicated love story between 2 opposite religions: Muslim and Jewish Moroccans natives. A film with a timeless atmosphere where mirror game and optical illusion suggest the final entropy.
SUNDAY, 20th September
I BLOCK – PATH TO A DREAM
15 h
Indlela Yokuphila: The Soul's Journey, 13 min (South Africa, 2023), animated film for youth
By Mpume Mthomben, Marc Moynihan, Dr. Dylan McGarry
In South Africa, many cultures revere the ocean as the realm in which the ancestors dwell. When a child asks their teacher named Nowandle: "How do the ancestors get into the sea?" a mystical adventure unfolds in Nowandle's loving narration against an African operatic choral score. After death, the soul transforms into a young ancestor, who travels through the underground streams, through river systems, remembering the personality of the places they had once lived. All the while they are called to the deep sea by the great-great-grandmothers, ancient beings who dwell in the realm on the sea floor. Called by this son, the spirit returns to her loved ones, receiving all the collective knowledge of her ancestors. She dwells down there for a very long time, until matters on land are pressing, and her next mother calls her. Moving to the surface, the soul is carried by a cloud and rained down on a village, whereupon, collecting rainwater, their next mother drinks her, and there, inside the ocean of her belly, she grows only to be born again.
15.15 h
Azumah, The Ghanaian Hero, 13 min (Ghana, 2017), animated film for youth
By Nii Ofei-Kyei Dodoo
Azumah Nelson, an outsider, has two weeks to prepare for his first international fight. Although he loses by technical knockout in the final round, he begins a warrior’s journey to become the greatest African boxer of all time.
15.30 h
Black Barbie, 4 min (Ghana, 2016), animated film
By Comfort Arthur
When Comfort is given a Black Barbie doll as a child by her mother, she begins to question her ideas of beauty and self-worth. Growing into an adult, she begins to bleach her skin in order to feel as though she is fitting in with society’s expectations, leading to a sudden realisation. Narrated by the director herself, this short but vibrant animation tells a personal story of Blackness that puts a spotlight on the way race plays into our self-identity.
15.35 h
Mangata, 15 min [(Nigeria), Italy/ Germany, 2023], science-fiction
By Maja Costa
On a challenging mission to the moon, young astronaut Alya has an encounter that helps her overcome a traumatic event from her past.
***
II BLOCK – CHILDREN IN THE ADULT WORLD
16 h
Troublemaker, 11 min (Nigeria, 2019), drama
By Olive Nwosu
On an excruciatingly hot day in East Nigeria, a young boy learns the hard way that all actions have consequences.
16.10 h
Da Yie, 20 min (Ghana/Belgium, 2019), drama
By Anthony Nti
A foreigner in Ghana gets an assignment from his gang to find kids for a risky job that will take place later that evening. While spending the day with two energetic children, Prince and Matilda, he starts to question his decision and how it will affect their lives.
16.30 h
Tsutsue, 15 min (Ghana/France, 2022), drama
By Amartei Amar
Set in a small Ghanaian town at the edge of a large landfill site that spills into the ocean, the sons of a fisherman, Sowah and Okai, struggle to cope with loss of their eldest brother who drowned during a fishing expedition. Haunted by his demise, Okai believes their brother is still out there…
16.45 h
Punter, 14 min (South Africa/USA, 2024), drama
By Adam Maselle
Young Brett must navigate the underbelly of the Johannesburg gambling world as a seemingly harmless horse racing bet jeopardizes the surprise he’s prepared for his Father’s birthday.
Click here to download the Program for both days of the Festival (PDF).
Festival initiator: Azandi Kakora
Azandi Kakora is a South African cultural practitioner who studied Communication Science at the University of South Africa. She has a deep passion for film, art and contemporary dance.
In 2015 Azandi and her sister Sharon founded the company “Love Africa Film”, through which they are dedicated to fostering cultural exchanges through film. They specialise in selecting films for the Durban International Film Festival, location scouting, producing films, judging films and television programs for various award ceremonies and nurturing talent in young filmmakers. The company's headquarters are in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Selector: Ivana Vojt
Realization and Coordination: Ivana Vojt, Azandi Kakora, Aleksandra Prodanović Bojović, Emilia Epštajn
Poster design: Azandi Kakora
Technical realization of posters and other visual materials: Braća Burazeri – Isidora Tomić
The festival is held in collaboration with The French Institute in Belgrade, the organization Empatheatre, the production company Geração 80 (G80), the Serbian-Moroccan Friendship Association, and film authors Mohammed Amine Ben Loulou and Mirko Rucnov.
