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Cinema Africa returns to Bayreuth at the end of October for its 18th edition. From October 2026 to January 2027, the long-running film series will once again bring contemporary African cinema to the big screen at Cineplex Bayreuth, with screenings in October and November followed by a four-day festival finale in January.

Cinema Africa has been part of Bayreuth’s cultural landscape for many years, creating a space in which audiences can encounter films, filmmakers and perspectives from across the African continent and its diasporas. Organised within the framework of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bayreuth and in cooperation with Cineplex Bayreuth, the series brings together fiction films from different regions, cinematic traditions and generations.

Over the years, the programme has brought films from a wide range of countries, genres and cinematic traditions to Bayreuth. Beyond presenting African cinema to local audiences, Cinema Africa has repeatedly created opportunities for exchange through discussions with filmmakers and other guests. Previous editions have included both fiction and documentary films and have explored themes ranging from migration, memory and colonial histories to family, social change and global entanglements.

The 2026/27 edition begins on 26 October with Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Soumsoum, la nuit des astres (Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars). The 2026 production from Chad follows Kellou, a young woman troubled by visions, whose encounter with the ostracised Aya changes both their lives. As their bond grows, the two women face increasing hostility from the community around them.

On 9 November at 8 pm, the programme continues with Alain Gomis’ DAO. The French-Senegalese-Guinea-Bissauian film was presented in competition at the 2026 Berlinale. It begins with a film casting at which Gloria and Nour meet and become mother and daughter in front of the camera. Their newly formed family celebrates a wedding in Paris before travelling to Guinea-Bissau to bid farewell to the head of the family. Between these two rituals, the film moves between Europe and West Africa, life and death, past and present, weaving together fictional narratives and lived experience.

At its heart, DAO is concerned with family memory, collective history and the stories passed on between generations. Professional and non-professional actors, including members of Gomis’ own family, worked within an intentionally open framework in which improvisation and personal experience became part of the filmmaking process.

The autumn programme concludes on 23 November with Hanami, a 2025 production from Cape Verde. The film will be shown twice at Cineplex Bayreuth: at 6 pm with German subtitles and at 8 pm with English subtitles.

The staggered format has become a distinctive feature of Cinema Africa in recent years. Rather than limiting the programme to a single festival week, screenings are spread across several months, allowing individual films and themes more space before the series culminates in an intensive four-day programme. The 2025/26 edition followed a similar structure, beginning with screenings in November and December and concluding with four consecutive days of cinema at Cineplex Bayreuth in January.

The format also reflects a broader concern of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence with creating encounters between academic research, artistic practice and wider publics. Now in its second funding phase, the Cluster brings together five research centres in Bayreuth, Ouagadougou, Makhanda, Eldoret and Lagos and investigates processes of world-making from the vantage point of Africa. Public engagement formats such as Cinema Africa provide a different space in which questions of memory, belonging, representation and global interconnectedness can be approached through artistic work and shared discussion.

Four days of Cinema Africa in January

Following the autumn screenings, Cinema Africa returns in January for a concentrated four-day finale from 17 to 20 January 2027.

The January programme opens on Sunday, 17 January, with Aisha Can’t Fly, a 2026 production from Egypt and Sudan. On Monday, 18 January, audiences can see Lady, a 2025 production from Nigeria and Great Britain.

Tuesday, 19 January features a double bill. At 6 pm, Cinema Africa presents Congo Boy from the Central African Republic. At 8 pm, the programme continues with Apagamento, a 2025 production from Brazil, Mozambique and Angola. Carlos Massingue from Mozambique will attend as a guest, offering audiences an opportunity for exchange beyond the screening itself.

The festival concludes on Wednesday, 20 January, with the Kenyan film Bufis (Daydreamers). Set in Nairobi, the film follows Assad, a gifted storyteller and “fixer” who creates fictitious families from dispersed refugees hoping to succeed in the US Green Card Lottery. He invents family histories, writes scripts and coaches his clients until their stories become convincing enough for the visa interview. Based on true events, Bufis approaches dreams of migration, hope and imagined futures with humour and tenderness.

Spread across several months, the 2026/27 programme once again reflects the breadth of contemporary filmmaking connected to Africa and its diasporas. From Chad, Cape Verde and Kenya to Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Angola and Brazil, the films bring very different places, stories and cinematic approaches into conversation in Bayreuth.
 

• All screenings take place at Cineplex Bayreuth.
• Tickets are available online and at the cinema box office.
• The 2026/27 edition will culminate in a four-day Cinema Africa finale in January 2027.
• Further details of the January programme will be announced separately.