African Film Fest Returns

The 32nd edition of the New York African Film Festival (NYAFF), currently running through May 31, is the biggest-ever, featuring a record number of films this year. African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) is screening 125 contemporary and classic films from Africa and its diaspora in partnership with Film at Lincoln Center (FLC), the Maysles Documentary Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Under the banner “Fluid Horizons: A Shifting Lens on a Hopeful World,” this edition of the festival celebrates the African youth who have turned to their cameras to document their experiences and the influence of those who came before them. Genres include comedies, dramas, thrillers, documentaries, experimental films, and more.

“In a world of uncertainty, this year presents a vision of the future through the eyes of Africa’s youth—bold, determined, and endlessly creative. As the youngest and fastest-growing continent, Africa is brimming with stories that demand to be told, not just as reflections of today’s challenges but as blueprints for a future shaped by resilience and possibility,” said Mahen Bonetti, NYAFF founder and AFF executive director.

“This year’s festival is a testament to the power of cinema to inspire, provoke, and remind us that hope is always in motion.”
Special programs include a free panel presented by AFF and OkayAfrica, this Sunday, May 10 entitled “From Then to Now: Celebrating 15 Years of African Cinema.” Panelists include NYAFF alums Fatou Cissé, who also honors the profound legacy of her father, the late Souleymane Cissé; Congolese animator and filmmaker Jean-Michel Kibushi; and Afolabi Olalekan, director of the festival’s Opening Night film Freedom Way.

Two free art exhibits ongoing through May 13 in the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center include “Congo RE-Vue: A Fresh Perspective by Emerging Congolese Talent,” a dynamic digital photo exhibition dedicated to highlighting the vibrant talent of the next generation of Congolese artists; and Bereket Adamu’s “All Night We Waited for Morning, All Morning We Waited for Night,” a welded steel light sculpture and animated video that reflects on African resistance, migration, and global interconnectedness. For FLC film tickets, visit filmlinc.org/african.

The festival continues at Maysles Documentary Center from May 15 to 18. At this Harlem venue, the NYAFF will invite audiences into the backyard of our communities — specifically those of the Senegalese, wider African and African-American communities — illuminating our commonalities, calling out our distinct issues and celebrating our dynamic cultures. The Opening Night film, The Man Who Plants Baobabs by Michel K. Zongo, brings viewers into the world of climate champion El Hadji Salifou Ouédraogo, who has spent the past 50 years of his life planting baobab trees in his village in Burkina Faso, transforming barren lands into thriving ecosystems.

This segment will also feature the North American premiere of The Last Shore by Jean-François Ravagnan, a poignant documentary about the viral drowning death of a young Gambian migrant in Venice’s Grand Canal while onlookers hurled racists taunts; the U.S. premiere of Timpi Tampa a debut by Adama Bineta Sow, a social critique of colorism; and a wide range of documentary films. For tickets, visit https://www.maysles.org/.

On Friday, May 23, NYAFF lands at the Brooklyn Academy of Music under the name FilmAfrica, during DanceAfrica and runs through May 29. Similar to DanceAfrica, this leg of the festival shines the spotlight on Mozambique, with the African nation’s first feature film Mueda, Memória e Massacre (Mueda, Memory and Massacre), a 1979 film by Ruy Guerra.

Other Mozambiquan titles include Kuxa Kanema: The Birth of Cinema by Margarida Cardoso and Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret by João Ribeiro Opening Night at BAM will see the North American premiere of Angèle Diabang’s So Long A Letter, the stirring adaptation of Senegalese author Mariama Bâ’s celebrated 1979 feminist novel, which won the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa and which was rated among the top 12 in a tally of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in 2002.

Katanga: The Dance of the Scorpions, Étalon d’Or de Yennenga (Best Film) at FESPACO 2025 by Burkinabé director Dani Kouyaté, which interprets Shakespeare’s Macbeth through an African lens, will have its New York premiere. For tickets, visit https://www.bam.org/film/2025/filmafrica.