33rd African Film Festival lights up NYC

The African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) has announced the full lineup for the 33rd New York African Film Festival (NYAFF), a month-long cinematic celebration that will unfold across New York City throughout May, illuminating stories, histories, and visions from Africa and its Diasporas.

Spanning theaters, cultural centers, and public spaces, AFF said on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, that the festival will present more than 100 films from over 30 countries.
The lineup includes over 50 features and 60 shorts, with many filmmakers joining for post-screening conversations.
NYAFF is co-presented by the Africa Center, Film at Lincoln Center (FLC), the Maysles Documentary Center, BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), and the New York City Parks Department.

With the theme, “As the Stars Sow the Earth,” the festival highlights Africa’s memory, will, and possibility, focusing on the continent’s natural resources and the vision of its leaders and artists for alternative futures.

“This cosmology resonates with the global rise of independent filmmaking, as directors working from historically underrepresented and underfunded regions use the moving image to reckon with the afterlives of colonialism while sustaining transnational and ecological connections,” said AFF. The 33rd New York African Film Festival affirms that Africa and its Diasporas, as a mobile and resilient geography, people, and idea, have been granted “the wisdom, memory, and invention necessary to build sovereign futures.”

“Across this year’s selection, filmmakers are reimagining the landscapes we inherit — drawing from ancestral wisdom not as something to leave behind, but as a source of renewal and possibility,” said Mahen Bonetti, founder and executive director of AFF. “Many of the directors, including a strong group making their first features, open new ways of seeing, rooted in land, spirit, and the worlds we share. In these films, what sustains us becomes a kind of wealth, guiding how we envision and shape futures on our own terms. Together, they offer glimpses of brighter horizons, reminding us that even in difficult times, life takes root in surprising and extraordinary ways.”

The festival kicks off May 1 at 6:30 p.m. at the Africa Center with a Town Hall forum titled “Black Space,” exploring the transformation of social and physical spaces by Black communities toward liberatory futures.
Through performances, reflections, and conversations, AFF said the program will explore how these spaces are forged and sustained, and how ancestral memory, spiritual cosmologies, and creative practice shape African and Diasporic worlds.

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A scene from Irene Tassembedo’s prize-winning film La Traversée (The Crossing). Photo courtesy AFF

he African Film Festival (AFF) in New York brings together artists, filmmakers, and cultural practitioners to explore its central theme, “As the Stars Sow the Earth,” which examines how Black communities transform displacement, ecological damage, and historical rupture into opportunities for renewal and creativity. The festival opens with a Town Hall that sets this tone, connecting visual art, land stewardship, and performance.

Opening Night on May 6 at Film at Lincoln Center features the New York premiere of Promised Sky by Erige Sehiri, a Cannes-selected drama about an Ivorian pastor in Tunisia who builds a surrogate family with migrant women. The festival’s centerpiece, The Eyes of Ghana, executive-produced by Barack and Michelle Obama and directed by Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot, follows 93-year-old photographer Chris Hesse as he works to preserve an archive that could reshape historical narratives.

The program includes a wide range of premieres and special screenings. Highlights include Gabriel Souleyka’s The Soul of Africa, a documentary on spiritual traditions, and Rumba Royale, which explores nightlife and photography in 1959 Congo. Two restored classics — Férid Boughedir’s Caméra Arabe and Paulin Soumanou Vieyra’s En résidence surveillée — will debut in the U.S., accompanied by discussions. Additional films such as Lace Relations examine global cultural connections, while Idris Elba’s short Dust to Dreams portrays ambition and family tensions in Lagos.

Closing Night features a curated shorts program centered on protection, identity, and resilience. Beyond screenings, the festival offers a retrospective digital exhibition, 36 Years at NYAFF, showcasing archival materials and honoring influential figures in African and diasporic cinema.

The festival extends into Harlem (May 15–17) with documentary-focused programming, including La Traversée on migration, Wolobougou on maternal healthcare in Burkina Faso, and Reclaiming Cocoa, which addresses resource exploitation. Films like Amílcar and Miss Jobson highlight resistance and activism, while others explore identity, including trans experiences under migration pressures.

In Brooklyn (May 22–28), AFF partners with BAM’s DanceAfrica through FilmAfrica, spotlighting Ugandan and Pan-African cinema. Screenings range from classic works like Black Girl to contemporary films such as Lady and Cotton Queen. The section opens with A Tribe Called Love, a modern Romeo-and-Juliet story, and features My Father’s Shadow, the UK’s Oscar submission.

Overall, NYAFF presents a rich, multidisciplinary celebration of African and diasporic storytelling, blending film, history, and cultural dialogue across multiple New York venues.