FESPACO Prepares for its 30th Edition

Burkina Faso’s Burkinabè Film and Audiovisual Agency (ABCA) has officially launched the next edition of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), scheduled for February 27–March 6, 2027. Founded in 1969, FESPACO is Africa’s largest and oldest film festival. The Pan-African festival, which takes place every two years in the capital city of Burkina Faso, opens itself to filmmakers, critics, journalists, students, and cinema-goers. 

In 1969, Burkina Faso had limited cinema and infrastructure. The festival was born from a private initiative by a group of cinephiles, including Alimata Salambéré, who served as its first president, François Bassolet, and Claude Prieux. The first edition of the festival was modest, featuring 24 films from seven countries (five African nations: Senegal, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Niger, and Cameroon; plus France and the Netherlands).

The festival, now preparing for its 30th edition in 2027, has grown. Burkina Faso is perhaps not a country that typically appears on global cultural or festival itineraries. But the political and institutional support the festival enjoyed has fostered a culture of independent African cinema where African films and conversations could be shown, debated and judged. In 1972, the event was properly formalised as FESPACO and officially anchored in Ouagadougou. The state backing during the 1980s, under Thomas Sankara’s government, expanded FESPACO’s operation and screening capacity.

During the 2025 edition, the festival hosted 235 officially selected films, drawn from 1,351 submissions representing 48 countries. They span feature fiction, feature documentary, animation, series, short films, student films, and children’s cinema. In 2025, the Étalon d’Or was awarded to Burkinabè filmmaker Dani Kouyaté for Katanga, la danse des scorpions. Beyond screenings, FESPACO functions as a serious professional hub. The programme includes masterclasses, workshops, co-production forums, and panel discussions. In 2025, sessions explored topics such as the tension between creative freedom and commercial sustainability, as well as public-health-focused screenings developed in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.

As one of the continent’s highly anticipated cultural events, FESPACO operates within real constraints. Gender representation in competition selections has drawn criticism, with women filmmakers remaining underrepresented in the festival’s highest categories. Logistical challenges – including accommodation shortages and transportation delays – have also been noted by past attendees, reflecting the scale and complexity of hosting a biennial festival of this size. Security remains a wider national concern in Burkina Faso due to instability in the Sahel region. Festival attendees have also spoken about language barriers and subtitling of films. Despite these internal and external challenges, FESPACO has continued to run consistently for decades.

FESPACO’s importance extends beyond cinematic education and curation. It has strong cultural importance as a decolonial tool and site of Pan-African solidarity. Historically, Africa was often depicted through a colonial lens, but FESPACO was founded on the principle that Africans must be the ones to tell their own stories. It serves as a platform for filmmakers to curate and reclaim their image while shedding off Western stereotypes to reflect the true complexities, triumphs, and struggles of African societies. As a hub for Pan-African solidarity, it’s one of the few continental festivals that brings together filmmakers, critics, and cinema lovers from across the continent and diaspora. 

Although it has been criticized for not subtitling films for festival attendees, the festival brings together Francophone, Anglophone, and Lusophone Africa, breaking down the colonial language barriers through the universal language of film.

As the festival prepares for its  2027 edition, ABCA has acknowledged the need to strengthen its distribution and sales participation. The priority is to reinforce the festival’s market platform and tighten coordination with national audiovisual regulators. Interested filmmakers can submit their films via the Faso Arzeka, Burkina Faso’s national digital submission platform. Eligible works must be completed after FESPACO 2025.