African Films Win Awards at the 2026 BlackStar Film Festival

The 2026 BlackStar Film Festival concluded its 2026 edition with African filmmakers winning major awards. The festival, founded by Maori Karmael Holmes  and launched in 2012, creates the spaces and resources needed to uplift the work of Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists working outside the confines of genre. The festival hosted over 90 titles and at its award ceremony, three African films were awarded the Jury and Audiences Awards. 

Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s Variation on a Theme won the Jury Award for Feature Narrative. The Jury noted how the film captures a larger history and critique through the story of a single community. “The filmmakers never lose us, even as they ask us to inhabit each being, including the animals in the film. Through a warm yet whimsical narration and spellbinding cinematography, the film quilts a portrait that deftly blurs the line between fiction and documentary,” the Jury stated. 

Abdou Cissé’s Authors of the Estate won the Short Documentary Award for its seamless weaving of a multifaceted cinematic lexicon that creates a portrait of a community while documenting its process of self-determination and empowerment. “It is an emotional, vital story that reminds us that we can make contributions to our own destinies,” the Jury commented. 

Nigerian Dammy Twitch’s Call of My Life won the Audience Awards for Favorite Feature Narrative. The audience-voted accolade marks a major international milestone for Dammy Twitch and the Nollywood creative team behind the production. 

The 2026 edition of the festival spotlighted genre-defying films and hosted critically incisive conversations with its expansive community of filmmakers, artists, panelists, and festival goers, all of whom met the moment with enthusiasm. Beyond the annual film festival, the organization produces year-round programs, including film screenings, exhibitions, a filmmaker seminar, a film production lab, and a journal of film, art and visual culture. These programs, according to the BlackStar team, provide artists with opportunities for viable strategies for collaborations with other artists, audiences, funders, and distributors.