Jali Film Weekender Reveals Full 2026 Programme Featuring One World, Two European, 11 UK and 22 Scottish Premieres

Under the theme of Rebellion, nearly 40 films, three immersive XR works and a new venue feature across the five-day celebration of Black, African and diasporic cinema in Edinburgh

Across film and XR, the programme includes one world premiere, two European premieres, 11 UK premieres and 22 Scottish premieres

Highlights include Venice award-winning features Dear Ajayi and House of the Wind, Morocco’s official Academy Award submission Strawberries, award-winning documentary feature Magma and documentary short The Boys and the Bees, plus a 40th-anniversary screening of John Akomfrah’s acclaimed documentary essay film Handsworth Songs.

Jali Collective has revealed the full programme for the second edition of Jali Film Weekender, taking place in Edinburgh from 28 October to 1 November 2026.

Returning to Filmhouse and expanding into the Traverse Theatre building, the five-day festival will present nearly 40 films alongside three immersive extended reality works, filmmaker conversations, Q&As and special events.

The programme features work from across Africa and its global diaspora, with one world premiere, two European premieres, 11 UK premieres and 22 Scottish premieres across film and XR.

Taking Rebellion as its 2026 theme, Jali Film Weekender explores resistance in its many forms. Across the film and Extended Reality programmes, rebellion moves from collective action, political dissent and protest to quieter, deeply personal acts of refusal, self-determination and transformation. The programme presents rebellion not as a single gesture, but as an expansive force through which individuals and communities challenge power, assert their identities and imagine different futures.

Jali Film Weekender was established to widen access to African and diasporic cinema in Scotland, creating a dedicated space for bold filmmaking, cultural exchange and meaningful engagement with Black, African and diaspora audiences.

AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL CINEMA

Newly announced highlights include the Scottish premiere of Laïla Marrakchi’s feature Strawberries, selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and presented in partnership with Take One Action; the Scottish premiere of Sheffield DocFest First Feature Award-winning documentary Magma by Mia Bendrimia; and the Scottish premiere of Arielle Knight’s Sundance-winning documentary short The Boys and the Bees, executive-produced by Nickel Boys director RaMell Ross.

Also screening are the UK premiere of Locarno Silver Leopard-winning short Khufu by Mahmoud Assi; the UK premiere of Adeoye Adetunji’s The Travails of Ajadi, the first Nigerian short selected for Annecy’s Official Competition; the Scottish premiere of BFI London Film Festival competition short FarEye by Hayden Mclean; and the UK premiere of animated short ChikaBOOM!, featuring Yara Shahidi, Daveed Diggs, Natasha Lyonne, Roy Wood Jr. and Tika Sumpter.

REBELLION IN ITS MANY FORMS

The theme of Rebellion runs through stories of frontline political resistance as well as quieter acts of personal defiance. The programme also includes a 40th-anniversary screening of John Akomfrah’s documentary Handsworth Songs, made with the Black Audio Film Collective.

The UK premiere of Patience Nitumwesiga’s documentary The Woman Who Poked the Leopard will be presented in partnership with the Scottish Documentary Institute. The film is an intimate portrait of Ugandan poet, academic and activist Dr Stella Nyanzi, whose work confronts dictatorship, patriarchy and state repression.

The Scottish premiere of Jihan K’s documentary feature My Father and Qaddafi follows the filmmaker’s attempt to understand the disappearance of her father, Libyan opposition leader and human-rights lawyer Mansur Rashid Kikhia. Drawing on personal memories, family testimony and archive footage, the film explores how national politics can enter the most intimate family relationships.

Other features include the Scottish premiere of South African queer coming-of-age drama Black Burns Fast; presented in partnership with the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF), the UK premiere of Haitian family drama and Sundance-hit The Tropic Sun and His Eyes; the Scottish premiere of Mozambican spiritual thriller O Profeta (The Prophet); and the Scottish premiere of Variations on a Theme, a portrait of waiting, endurance and independence set in South Africa’s Namaqualand.

The short-film programme spans documentary, narrative, animation and experimental work, exploring histories of colonialism, gender, migration, spirituality, family and community. Together, the films broaden the idea of rebellion to encompass the everyday choices through which people resist imposed identities, inherited expectations and unequal systems.

EXTENDED REALITY AT TRAVERSE THEATRE

For 2026, Jali Film Weekender’s Extended Reality programme moves to a new venue at Traverse Theatre, with three immersive works extending the festival beyond the cinema screen.

The Scottish premiere of immersive XR work Blackstar Sanctuary by Marques Redd and Mikael Owunna of The Rainbow Serpent takes audiences into an expansive ancient Egyptian temple world, guided by a Rainbow Serpent and centred on Black queer spiritual traditions.

The European premiere of immersive XR work Honme by Mahoutondji Kinmagbo invites participants to embody the spirit of King Béhanzin, moving through a sacred palace where stolen royal relics, ancestral memory and the restoration of cultural power converge.

The Weekender will also present the World Premiere of Fallohide’s The Wizard of Kitui, a Kenyan mixed-reality narrative experience, bringing a different form of interactive storytelling into the programme.

SPOTLIGHT: GERAÇÃO 80

The Weekender will present a special focus on acclaimed Angolan film collective and production company Geração 80, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation UK Branch’s Gulbenkian Exhibitions Fund.

The programme includes the UK premiere of Hugo Salvaterra’s My Semba (Meu Semba) alongside the retrospective screening of the collective’s feature films Air Conditioner and Our Lady of the Chinese Shop, and the short Lucia in the Sky with Traffic Lights.

The focus offers Scottish audiences a rare opportunity to encounter work from one of the key creative forces shaping contemporary Angolan cinema. 

OPENING AND CLOSING FILMS

As previously announced, the Weekender will open with the Scottish premiere of Damilola Orimogunje’s Dear Ajayi, the first Nigerian feature selected for Venice’s Giornate degli Autori and winner of the CICT-UNESCO Enrico Fulchignoni Prize – Fellini Medal at Venice. Set in 1990s southwestern Nigeria, it follows two sisters brought together by their ailing mother, exploring grief, faith, ambition and family.

The Weekender will close with the Scottish premiere of Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s House of the Wind, winner of Venice’s Orizzonti Special Jury Prize and Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film, following its world premiere at the festival. Set in Yaoundé, it follows 80-year-old Josette, whose efforts to bring her children home are challenged by an unexpected bond with a younger woman.

“We’re incredibly proud of the scale and breadth of this year’s Jali Film Weekender. The programme explores the theme of Rebellion as an expansive force through which individuals and communities challenge power, assert their identities and imagine different futures. 

We’re so excited to bring a programme that moves across countries, generations and form to Edinburgh and Scottish audiences, and look forward to these audiences finding their own meanings with the work shared.” 

— Tomiwa Folorunso, Isabel Moura Mendes and Carmen Thompson, co-directors of Jali Film Weekender.

2026 FESTIVAL ARTWORK

The 2026 Jali Film Weekender Lead Artwork was created by multidisciplinary artist and creative director Aisha Ayoade.

“This artwork celebrates film's power to bring family together, but reimagines that family as chosen.

In a space where gender and sexuality move freely, unbound by expectation, film becomes a resting force - a refuge from the noise of the outside world. 

The imagery holds a scene of uninterrupted comfort: people who have built their own home in one another. Woven through the piece is a nod to Pan-Africanism, with cultural motifs reimagined for a modern setting.” 

Aisha Ayoade is a multidisciplinary artist and creative director. Through her work, she documents comfort as a practice - from sacred moments of solitude to familiar gatherings of ease. Through painting and sculpture, Aisha verbs the idea of home, rendering it as moveable and ever-changing. For Aisha, home is conjured through practices of comfort rather than confined to a physical place. Her work is anchored in West African cultural practices, both from within and beyond the continent. Discover Aisha’s practice through her platform dele.world.

ABOUT JALI COLLECTIVE

Jali Collective is an Edinburgh-based grassroots collective working to widen access to African cinema and celebrate and elevate Black, African and diaspora stories through film and culture.

Founded by Tomiwa Folorunso, Isabel Moura Mendes and Carmen Thompson, the collective curates screenings, festivals, workshops and events that connect audiences with filmmaking from across Africa and its global diaspora.

The inaugural Jali Film Weekender took place at Filmhouse in 2025, presenting eight features and 12 short films, including 16 Scottish premieres, two UK premieres and one European premiere. It welcomed nearly 700 admissions and hosted the first Scottish presentations of Kenyan Virtual and Augmented Reality works at Filmhouse.

The festival also brought filmmakers and audiences together through post-screening discussions, workshops and public conversations about centring Black, African and diaspora audiences in Scotland.

Jali Film Weekender 2026 is supported by the Screen Scotland National Lottery Film Festival & Screening Programme Fund and by Film Hub Scotland (part of the BFI’s Film Audience Network, awarding funding on behalf of Screen Scotland and the BFI National Lottery), alongside the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation UK Branch and other partners.

Jali Film Weekender takes place across Edinburgh from 28 October to 1 November 2026. 

Full programme and tickets: www.jalicollective.co.uk/jali-film-weekender