African Pictures
SIFF’s African Pictures program showcases the best filmmaking happening in and about Africa today, bringing shorts, features, documentaries, and fiction films to American audiences. Don’t miss this opportunity to delight in these innovative and inspiring works spanning Africa’s diverse regions and cultures.
Black Burns Fast
South Africa | 2026 | 96 min. | Sanduela Asanda
At an elite South African boarding school, scholarship student Luthando has mastered the art of invisibility until the arrival of free-spirited Ayanda upends her straight-laced existence.
Cotton Queen
Germany | 2025 | 94 min. | Suzannah Mirghani
In a Sudanese cotton village where the matriarch is rumored to have killed a British general, teenage Nafisa must decide what she owes her grandmother’s legacy and what she’s willing to burn down to claim her own.
Happy Birthday
Egypt | 2025 | 92 min. | Sarah Goher
Eight-year-old Toha has big plans; she wants to throw her friend Nelly a birthday party. But the differences between them will make this a challenge in ways she may not fully understand.
Kikuyu Land
Kenya | 2026 | 93 min. | Andrew H. Brown (Huron-Wyandot), Bea Wangondu (Kikuyu)
What begins as a seemingly straightforward investigation into land restitution in Kenya leads to a web of exploitation, family secrets, and death threats in this riveting political documentary.
Promised Sky
Tunisia | 2025 | 95 min. | Erige Sehiri
A community of Ivorian women navigating the complexities of migrant life in Tunisia are forced to make difficult decisions when they rescue an orphaned girl from a shipwreck.