Five months after the Palme d’Or, Cannes switches its screens back on for a very different crowd. The 23rd edition of the Cannes Pan-African International Film Festival (FIFP) runs from 21 to 25 October 2026 at the Espace Miramar. Feature films, documentaries, animation, series and music videos will be screened, with conferences, an arts market and a fashion show running alongside.
The festival has a long history. It was founded in 2004 by the Nord-Sud Développement association and Eitel Basile Ngangué Ebelle, with the aim of promoting the cinema, arts and crafts of Africa and its diaspora. Directors, producers, musicians and artists from around 60 countries gather there each year. Since 2006, a professional jury has handed out the Dikalo Awards, named after a Douala word meaning “message”, for the best short and feature fiction films, the best documentaries, the best actor and actress, and a peace prize. Filmmaker Jephté Bastien chairs this year’s fiction jury.
Wednesday’s opening night, at 8 p.m., features a documentary feature in competition by Mohammed Makhfi, a Canada and Morocco coproduction. Morocco sets the tone for the first day, with two documentaries on its culture: The Evolution of Moroccan Hammams and The Possessed: The Power of the Gnawa Trance.
Thursday takes the audience elsewhere. On 22 October, Hira Gasy, danse musique parole de Madagascar looks at a Malagasy art form that blends several disciplines, and Africa Blanca, la couleur de l’exil screens the same day. Thursday also brings Nyota, les enfants lumière, which gives a voice to children scarred by the wars in eastern Congo. Viewers will return to that region with Jean-Gabriel Leynaud’s Le sang et la boue, filmed in Numbi, where coltan mining, essential to the electronics industry, shapes everyday life.
On Friday, the continent’s political memory comes back to the screen with Miguel Eek’s Amílcar. Goundafa, le chant maudit plays on 23 October, followed by an evening of kompa music.
Saturday looks set to be the busiest day. Valdiodio has the 2:30 p.m. slot to itself, and the day also hosts the Mariannes de la Diversité conference before the pan-African gala dinner at the Hôtel Martinez at 8 p.m. The Sublime Fashion Show by Donatela will also take place during the festival. On the fiction side, Angela Zivo Gapa’s Rusambo tells the story of a lobola ceremony in Zimbabwe thrown into chaos when the bride price mysteriously vanishes.
Business has its place too. The Cannes Pan-African Films and Arts Market, a space set aside for creators, will host an exhibition by photojournalist François Maurel. People come to watch films, but they also come to meet, talk and make deals.