AFRIFF 2026 Short Films You Shouldn’t Miss — A Complete Screening Guide

The Story⚡

Twenty-three short films arrive in Lagos this November carrying quiet power. From ancestral healing and migration secrets to childhood memories and everyday resilience, these works reveal Africa’s stories in their most concentrated form. AFRIFF 2026 will place them at the centre of its screens.

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The 15th Africa International Film Festival runs from 1 to 7 November 2026 in Lagos under the theme “Frames of the Future: Africa’s Creative Intelligence.” While features and documentaries fill the larger programme, the short films stand out for their range of voices, styles and subjects. These works, many by African and diaspora filmmakers, compress complex lives into brief, precise narratives.

Soul Catcher  

Directed by Amanda Strong and Pamela Post, this stop-motion animated short follows a gender-fluid Ts’msyen youth guided by an ancient shaman. Using a soul catcher amulet, the young person travels through time to recover the spirit of a totem pole that missionaries forced into a river a century earlier. The film confronts colonial harm and the careful work of reclaiming what was taken.

2:Love  

Ronni Shalev’s animated short is set during a major tennis tournament. Two ball girls crouch on either side of the net, each determined to excel. When their eyes meet, rivalry shifts into unexpected attraction. The film follows their search for a way past the competition that separates them.

In the Shadows 75  

Directed by Zubayr Zubayr, the film is set in 1970s Libya. A weary Nigerian man and a young Cameroonian woman share a tense night of confessions while waiting for the next stage of their journey toward Europe. Inspired by a real traveller’s experience, it captures the fragile trust and sudden danger of such passages.

Serubawon  

Samuel Adeoye directs this Nigerian short, also referred to in some listings as Scare Them. It joins the AFRIFF selection as part of the festival’s focus on contemporary African storytelling, continuing Adeoye’s interest in personal and social tensions.

Leopard of Congo  

Kiosa Sukami’s film looks back to 1974, when a talented Congolese football side won the Africa Cup of Nations under Mobutu Sese Seko and earned a place at the World Cup. Shot in Kinshasa, it explores national pride, political pressure and sporting ambition as a proof of concept for a larger story.

On the Backburner  

Directed by Krisztián Kajtár, this short forms part of the international voices in the AFRIFF programme, contributing to the festival’s mix of perspectives on everyday pressures and deferred lives.

Lalela  

Reabetswe Moeti directs this South African short. It sits among the selection’s works that examine listening, presence and the quieter dimensions of daily experience.

Maktoub  

Kunle Fasasi’s short carries the Arabic concept of what is written or destined. It joins the Nigerian titles in the programme that explore personal and cultural reckonings.

Lice N’ Shine  

Maria Byoma’s Ugandan animated comedy follows girls at a boarding school hostel as the holidays approach. What begins as an ordinary morning descends into the familiar chaos of teenage life, turning everyday rituals into a light portrait of girlhood.

Rain  

Directed by Tabitha Mwale, this short adds to the selection’s range of atmospheric and intimate stories drawn from African settings.

Goat  

Judy Kibinge’s Kenyan short follows city couple Suki and Benjamin to a remote goat farm. What Suki expects as a romantic escape becomes something else when she witnesses the slaughter of a goat and confronts visions of an ancestral debt demanded by an ancient Mugumo tree.

Wasabi  

Uhoman Blonded Baby Moltok directs this story of a pregnant Senegalese writer who, after her husband’s death, moves in with her estranged Japanese mother-in-law. The two women must navigate their painful pasts and the tensions that rise between them.

Stay  

Onyinye Blessing’s short examines the weight of remaining in place, joining other intimate Nigerian works in the programme that focus on relationships and quiet decisions.

On or Before Two Weeks  

Directed by Eliyahu Rochester, this short forms part of the festival’s broader exploration of time, waiting and the pressures of deadlines or departures.

A Tray of Locust Beans (aka ATOLB)  

Orobosa Ikponmwen directs this Lufodo Productions short, based on a story by Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi and featuring Joke Silva among the cast. It follows a woman carrying her livelihood and dignity on her head, examining quiet resilience in the face of daily demands.

Little Soldier  

Roxan Karami’s short joins the selection with a focus on youth and the weight of early responsibility or conflict.

Obe (Soup)  

Directed by Horla Manuvor, this Nigerian short draws on the everyday act of preparing soup as a way into larger questions of care, culture and sustenance.

Ife ati Iku (Love and Death)  

Favour Babalola directs this Yoruba-titled short that holds the tension between love and mortality, adding a poetic dimension to the Nigerian entries.

The Lion of Gwoza  

Adeoye Adetunji’s short turns to stories connected with Gwoza, contributing to the programme’s attention to place, memory and the lingering effects of conflict.

Ramat  

Steve Babaeko directs this personal short drawn from his childhood. It centres on the day a young boy sees his soldier father cry for the first time after the death of a Nigerian leader, treating a private moment as a wider reflection on loss and family.

Waiting for My Sister  

Chimereogo Chiagozie Nwoke-Chima’s short explores waiting, absence, and the bonds of sibling connection, premiering as part of the AFRIFF lineup.

Rooted  

Sultan Ali Al Qamshouai directs this short that examines belonging and the ties that hold people to place or to one another.

Sinai America  

Rewan Mousa’s short links the landscapes and experiences of Sinai with wider movements and crossings, extending the programme’s geographic reach.

Dawayer – The Fallen Angel  

Kerolous Gamal Kamel directs this short that turns to themes of fall and consequence, adding another distinct voice from the wider region.

These films share a common strength: they trust images, silence and carefully chosen moments rather than over-explanation. Many are directed or produced by women, reflecting a wider pattern in this year’s selection. Together they show how short-form cinema can address history, identity, migration, family and resilience without needing feature length.

Your AFRIFF 2026 Short Films Screening Guide

All screenings run from November 1 to 6, 2026 at Landmark, Screens 1, 3, 4 and 5.

In Summary 

AFRIFF 2026 places these short films at the heart of its celebration of African creative intelligence. From 1 to 7 November in Lagos, they will screen alongside features, documentaries and industry conversations. Viewers who make time will encounter concentrated, carefully made stories that stay with them long after the lights rise. Plan to attend and experience them on the big screen.

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