From Sudan to Congo, Film Africa 2025 brings stories of womanhood, migration, and identity to London screens

Film Africa has, for several years, cemented itself as a seminal event for African cinematic talent and storytelling in the United Kingdom, and this year isn't any different. 

Organised by the Royal African Society, a London-based membership organisation, it amplifies African voices and interests in academia, business, politics, and the arts in the UK.

As the legendary singer Nina Simone once said, “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times.”

Film Africa 2025 embodies this with a powerful lineup of over 50 films and special events, including features, documentaries, and shorts from more than 20 countries — from Morocco to South Africa, Nigeria to Congo — showcasing the richness, diversity, and inventiveness of African filmmaking.

I remember attending the 2016 edition, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching Gidi Blues: A Lagos Love Story at Hackney Picturehouse. 

And this year, once again, a powerful wave of filmmaking will take centre stage at the festival, with a special focus on women's lives, identities, and resilience, from 14-23 November at several venues across London. 

The New Arab speaks to the festival’s director, Keith Shiri, to uncover how Film Africa is showcasing African cinematic expansion and experimentation.

The New Arab: Film Africa has come a long way since its inception. What would you say, if anything, is different this time around for film lovers? 

Keith Shiri: Film Africa has indeed evolved considerably since its earlier editions, and your memory of seeing Gidi Blues at Hackney Picturehouse perfectly captures the festival’s longstanding appeal.

It has always been a space where African cinema feels alive, intimate, and connected to everyday realities.

Since 2016, however, there has been a noticeable shift in how African films are produced, curated, and engaged with globally, and this year’s festival reflects that shift.

One significant difference today is the breadth of storytelling and stylistic experimentation African filmmakers are embracing. African cinema is less concerned now with explaining itself to the world; instead, it is speaking from the inside outward.

There is a confidence and intentionality in the filmmaking that feels refreshing.

Young directors are playing with documentary hybridity, speculative fiction, and symbolic visual language, while more established voices are refining styles rooted in local oral traditions, theatre, folklore, and pop culture.

"African cinema is less concerned now with explaining itself to the world; instead, it is speaking from the inside outward"

This year’s programme spotlights migration, womanhood, and identity in deeply moving ways. From Tunisia to Egypt, filmmakers are pushing boundaries and reframing how North Africa is seen — from its people, the rest of Africa, and beyond.

Film Africa

Promised Sky directed by Erige Sehiri

Aïcha directed by Mehdi M. Barsaoui

Aisha Can't Fly Away directed by Morad Mostafa

Among the standout titles are Promised Sky, Aïcha, and Aisha Can’t Fly Away, each capturing the struggle and beauty of survival in uncertain times.

Promised Sky, by French-Tunisian filmmaker Erige Sehiri, follows Marie, an Ivorian pastor in Tunis who has built a refuge for two women. When a shipwreck survivor joins their fragile household, tensions rise in a society marked by xenophobia and inequality, testing the women’s faith, resilience, and solidarity.

Mehdi M. Barsaoui’s Aïcha is inspired by a 2019 Tunisian news story, where Aya, in her late twenties, becomes the sole survivor of a bus crash, and seeing a chance to start anew, she flees to Tunis under a new identity, only to become the key witness to a police blunder that forces her to confront her past.

Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa’s directorial debut, Aisha Can’t Fly Away, tells the story of a 26-year-old Sudanese caregiver living in the heart of Cairo, where she witnesses rising tensions between her fellow African migrants and local gangs. 

This year features a powerful lineup from North Africa. What drew you to include titles like Promised Sky, Aïcha, and Aisha Can’t Fly Away?

Films like Promised Sky, Aïcha, and Aisha Can’t Fly Away are rich with quiet emotional depth and a sensitivity to the contradictions of daily life in the region.

These selections were not chosen solely to balance geography; they speak to the evolving narratives of North African filmmakers exploring identity, womanhood, migration, faith, and autonomy in fresh and compelling ways.

In these films, we see female protagonists who are neither idealised nor constrained by stereotypical portrayals; instead, they navigate layered realities, familial expectations, the push-and-pull between tradition and selfhood, and the desire to imagine a life beyond constraint.

"The genocide in Sudan and the ongoing exploitation of Congo’s people and resources serve as a reminder of the turmoil and resilience shaping many African societies. Filmmakers from these spaces are transforming these realities into cinematic expressions"

Each film approaches these themes differently, whether through the intimacy of character study, poetic visual metaphor, or a quiet tension simmering beneath the surface.

There is also growing momentum among North African filmmakers to assert control over how their countries are seen.

The past decade has brought cinema infrastructures, training networks, and collaborative artistic communities that have strengthened the independent film scene from Morocco to Tunisia to Algeria.

These films, therefore, reflect not only individual vision but also a wider cultural reclaiming, stories told by those who live them, not for the foreign gaze, but as part of conversations happening within their own societies.

Including these films in the festival allows audiences to witness that cultural self-articulation and to recognise North Africa’s dynamic role in shaping the future of African cinema.

The genocide in Sudan, the ongoing exploitation of Congo’s people and resources, and the growing online and offline conversations surrounding them serve as a reminder of the turmoil and resilience shaping many African societies.

Filmmakers from these spaces are transforming these realities into cinematic expressions.

What kind of conversations do you hope these films — particularly those from Sudan, Egypt, and Congo — will spark among viewers this year?

When we consider films emerging from Sudan, Egypt, and Congo this year, the conversation deepens further.

These are regions where political upheaval, economic disruption, and social uncertainty are not abstract news items but immediate realities shaping the lives of millions.

A film from Sudan today is almost inevitably holding the weight of loss and displacement. Yet, it also often carries joy, humour, music, or intimate human tenderness as acts of resistance.

The conversations these films can spark among viewers are crucial. At a time when news coverage often flattens political crises into simplified narratives, cinema allows for nuance, individual perspective, and emotional resonance.

In bringing together works from across the continent — North, East, West, Central, and Southern Africa — this year’s Film Africa offers a space not for answers but for attentive listening and collective reflection.

Film Africa 2025, the UK and Europe’s leading film festival celebrating African and African diaspora cinema, returns to London from 14–23 November, at the British Film Institute, Southbank, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Rich Mix, Ritzy Picturehouse Brixton, Riverside Studios, University of East Anglia and the London School of Economics.

The full schedule for this year can be found here.

Adama Juldeh Munu is an award-winning journalist who's worked with TRT World, Al-Jazeera, the Huffington Post, Middle East Eye and Black Ballad. She writes about race, Black heritage and issues connecting Islam and the African diaspora

Follow her on X: @adamajmunu