Jali Film Weekender Unveils 2026 Programme, Opens with Damilola Orimogunje’s “Dear Ajayi”

Jali Film Weekender, under the theme of Rebellion, has announced its 2026 programme ahead of its second edition, scheduled from 28th October to 1st November, 2026. The Edinburgh-based festival has programmed about 40 films, three immersive XR works, and a new venue feature across the five-day celebration of Black, African, and diasporic cinema in Edinburgh. Returning to Filmhouse and expanding into the Traverse Theatre building, the festival will include filmmaker conversations, Q&As and special events. The programme features one world premiere, two European premieres, 11 UK premieres, and 22 Scottish premieres. 

Taking Rebellion as its 2026 theme, Jali Film Weekender explores resistance in its many forms. Across the film and Extended Reality programmes, rebellion moves from collective action, political dissent, and protest to quieter, deeply personal acts of refusal, self-determination, and transformation. The programme presents rebellion as an expansive force through which individuals and communities challenge power, assert their identities and imagine different futures. Jali Film Weekender was established to widen access to African and diasporic cinema in Scotland, creating a dedicated space for bold filmmaking, cultural exchange and meaningful engagement with Black, African and diaspora audiences. This year’s programming reflects that ambition and interest. 

For its international cinema screening, it will be presenting the Scottish premiere of Laïla Marrakchi’s feature Strawberries, selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and presented in partnership with Take One Action; the Scottish premiere of Sheffield DocFest First Feature Award-winning documentary Mia Bendrimia’s Magma; and the Scottish premiere of Arielle Knight’s Sundance-winning documentary short The Boys and the Bees, executive-produced by Nickel Boys director RaMell Ross.

Also screening are the UK premiere of Locarno Silver Leopard-winning short Mahmoud Assi’s Khufu; the UK premiere of Adeoye Adetunji’s The Travails of Ajadi, the first Nigerian short selected for Annecy’s Official Competition; the Scottish premiere of BFI London Film Festival competition short Hayden Mclean’s FarEye; and the UK premiere of animated short ChikaBOOM!, featuring Yara Shahidi, Daveed Diggs, Natasha Lyonne, Roy Wood Jr., and Tika Sumpter.

The theme of Rebellion runs through stories of frontline political resistance and quieter acts of personal defiance. The programme also includes a 40th-anniversary screening of John Akomfrah’s documentary Handsworth Songs, made with the Black Audio Film Collective. The UK premiere of Patience Nitumwesiga’s documentary The Woman Who Poked the Leopard will be presented in partnership with the Scottish Documentary Institute. The film is an intimate portrait of Ugandan poet, academic and activist Dr Stella Nyanzi, whose work confronts dictatorship, patriarchy and state repression. The Scottish premiere of Jihan K’s documentary feature My Father and Qaddafi follows the filmmaker’s attempt to understand the disappearance of her father, Libyan opposition leader and human-rights lawyer Mansur Rashid Kikhia. Drawing on personal memories, family testimony, and archive footage, the film explores how national politics can enter the most intimate family relationships.

Other features include the Scottish premiere of South African queer coming-of-age drama Sandulela Asanda’s Black Burns Fast; presented in partnership with SQIFF (Scottish Queer International Film Festival), the UK premiere of Haitian family drama and Sundance-hit Elisee Junior St Preux’s The Tropic Sun and His Eyes; the Scottish premiere of Ique Langa’s Mozambican spiritual thriller O Profeta (The Prophet), and the Scottish premiere of Jason Jacobs and Devon Dalmar’s Variations on a Theme, a portrait of waiting, endurance and independence set in South Africa’s Namaqualand.

The short-film programme spans documentary, narrative, animation, and experimental work, exploring histories of colonialism, gender, migration, spirituality, family, and community. Together, the films broaden the idea of rebellion to encompass the everyday choices through which people resist imposed identities, inherited expectations and unequal systems.

For 2026, Jali Film Weekender’s Extended Reality programme moves to a new venue at Traverse Theatre, with three immersive works extending the festival beyond the cinema screen. The Scottish premiere of immersive XR work Blackstar Sanctuary by Marques Redd and Mikael Owunna of The Rainbow Serpent takes audiences into an expansive ancient Egyptian temple world, guided by a Rainbow Serpent and centred on Black queer spiritual traditions.

The European premiere of immersive XR work Mahoutondji Kinmagbo’s Honme invites participants to embody the spirit of King Béhanzin, moving through a sacred palace where stolen royal relics, ancestral memory and the restoration of cultural power converge. The Weekender will also present the World Premiere of Fallohide’s The Wizard of Kitui, a Kenyan mixed-reality narrative experience, bringing a different form of interactive storytelling into the programme.

Additionally, The Weekender will present a special focus on acclaimed Angolan film collective and production company Geração 80, supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation UK Branch’s Gulbenkian Exhibitions Fund. The programme includes the UK premiere of Hugo Salvaterra’s My Semba (Meu Semba) alongside retrospective screenings of the collective’s feature films Air Conditioner and Our Lady of the Chinese Shop, and the short Lucia in the Sky with Traffic Lights. The focus offers Scottish audiences a rare opportunity to encounter work from one of the key creative forces shaping contemporary Angolan cinema.

The festival will open with the Scottish premiere of Damilola Orimogunje’s Dear Ajayi, the first Nigerian feature selected for Venice’s Giornate degli Autori and winner of the CICT-UNESCO Enrico Fulchignoni Prize – Fellini Medal at Venice. Set in 1990s southwestern Nigeria, it follows two sisters brought together by their ailing mother as they explore grief, faith, ambition, and family.

The Weekender will close with the Scottish premiere of Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s House of the Wind, winner of Venice’s Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film, following its world premiere in the festival’s Orizzonti competition. Set in Yaoundé, it follows 80-year-old Josette, whose efforts to bring her children home are challenged by an unexpected bond with a younger woman.

The Jali Collective, an Edinburgh-based grassroots collective launched the festival to widen access to African cinema and celebrate and elevate Black, African and diaspora stories through film and culture. Founded by Tomiwa Folorunso, Isabel Moura Mendes, and Carmen Thompson, the collective curates screenings, festivals, workshops and events that connect audiences with filmmaking from across Africa and its global diaspora. Now in its second year, the festival is keen on centering Black, African, and diaspora audiences in Scotland through its curated films, conversations, and festival.