2026 PROGRAMME
The theme of this year’s Jali Film Weekender programme is Rebellion, which manifests across both cinematic forms and narratives told, as well as who audiences will be introduced to both on and off screen.
Rebellion runs through our expansive screen programme, spanning narrative, documentary, animation, experimental and short film, and continues through filmmaker Q&As, panel discussions, gatherings and workshops, as well as our Extended Realities (XR) Exhibition of virtual and expanded reality works.
Check out the full 2026 programme schedule below.
Opening Film: DEAR AJAYI + Short + Q&A
The Weekender will open with Damilola Orimogunje’s beautiful debut Dear Ajayi, fresh from its World Premiere at Venice Film Festival.
Opening Night Drinks Reception
Please join us to raise a glass to the second edition of Jali Film Weekender!
(Opening Night Film ticket holders only)
Extended Reality: HONME
In an alternate future, you embody King Béhanzin’s spirit to blessroyal atributes for his descendant’s enthronement.
Extended Reality: BLACKSTAR SANCTUARY
Upon donning a VR headset, users are transported to ancient Egypt, where they undergo a ritual of rebirth in a temple adorned with towering sculptures of 16 queer African deities. Blending VR with queer history and spirituality, “Blackstar Sanctuary” reclaims a lineage of queer African divinity.
Extended Reality: THE WIZARD OF KITUI PRESENTS: HEART, FORTUNE & POWER A FORTUNE-TELLING EXPERIENCE
A short mixed-reality fortune-telling experience in which a participant discovers a mysterious poster advertising the visiting Wizard from Kitui.
Lunchtime Talk: Geração 80 Masterclass
As part of the Spotlight: Geração 80 programme we welcome Geração 80 for a special Lunchtime Talk Masterclass.
MY FATHER AND QADAFFI + Short + Introduction
When Jihan was six years old, her father flew to Cairo and never returned. Jihan’s mother Baha Al Omary, a strong-willed Syrian-American artist, began searching for him.
THE TROPIC SUN AND HIS EYES + Short + Q&A
Ruben, a despondent 26-year-old, returns home to Haiti to reconnect with his estranged father before it's too late.
THE WOMAN WHO POKED THE LEOPARD + Q&A
An intimate portrait of Ugandan poet-academic Dr. Stella Nyanzi, who defies state repression with bold acts of resistance.
Lunchtime Talk: Community-centred cultural spaces in a climate of division
Bringing together artists, filmmakers, programmers, cultural workers and community organisers to think collectively about what it means to centre Black, African and diaspora communities within film and the arts.
HANDSWORTH SONGS + Short
In honour of its 40th anniversary, we revisit John Akomfrah’s groundbreaking experimental documentary essay on race, protest and belonging in 80s Britain.
VARIATIONS ON A THEME + Short + Introduction
An elderly goat herder in the mountains of Namaqualand, South Africa, falls victim to a scam promising long-overdue reparations for her father’s WWII service.
Spotlight Geração 80: MY SEMBA + Discussion
X, an Albino baby manages to survive his contentious birth but loses his mother in the process. He comes of age, forming a bond with his fraternal brother and sister, Léle and Maria.
Festival Party: Spotlight Geração 80
Following the UK premiere of My Semba (Meu Semba), join us at Lochrin Rooftop for our festival party!
Shorts: What We Know of Ourselves
Across stories from Egypt, Nigeria, US, Somalia and Zimbabwe, this short film programme considers what it means to claim space in a world that has already decided where you belong.
THE PROPHET + Short + Introduction
In the village of Manjacaze, Mozambique, Pastor Hélder struggles with a fading faith. His small congregation dwindles, his sermons fail to inspire, and his wife Helena’s prayers for a child go unanswered.
Spotlight Geração 80: AIR CONDITIONER + Short + Q&A
When the air-conditioners in the city of Luanda mysteriously began to fall, Matacedo (security guard) and Zezinha (maid) embark on a mission to retrieve the boss’s AC by the end of the day.
STRAWBERRIES + Short + Introduction + Reflection
Hasna and Meriem leave their native Morocco to work as seasonal laborers picking strawberries in Southern Spain. Hoping to return home and provide a better life for their families, their dreams clash with a harsh reality.
BLACK BURNS FAST + Short + Introduction + Workshop
Seventeen-year-old Luthando, adorkable, bookish, and forever drifting between reality and her vivid inner world, returns for another year at a prestigious South African all-girls’ boarding school where reputation is everything, and nonconformity is quietly disciplined.
Spotlight Geração 80: OUR LADY OF THE CHINESE SHOP + Q&A
When a Chinese merchant brings to a neighbourhood of Luanda a peculiar holy plastic figure of Our Lady, a mourning mother will seek peace, a committed barber starts a new cult, and a stray child will look for revenge for his lost friend.
MAGMA + Short + Q&A
Spanning Algeria and France, Magma follows Mia as she sets out to understand how colonialism tore her family apart.
Shorts: What Calls Us Has Travelled Far
Through documentary, narrative, animation and experimental film, these shorts explore the many forms devotion can take and the journeys it sets in motion.
Closing Film: HOUSE OF THE WIND + Short
This year’s Weekender will close with Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s House of the Wind, which recently had its world premiere at Venice Film Festival.