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Despite ongoing funding challenges, the Afrika Film Festival Köln will return in 2025 for its 22nd edition, reaffirming its role as a vital platform for African cinema in Europe. Running from 18 to 28 September, the festival will once again transform Cologne into a cinematic hub for powerful African storytelling, global premieres and thought-provoking dialogue.
Under the banner “Afrikas Kino lebt – und Köln bleibt seine Bühne” (African cinema lives – and Cologne remains its stage), the festival’s organizers are determined to deliver a compelling program that resists austerity with creative vigor. “Especially in times like these, it’s crucial to make African filmmaking visible and create spaces for exchange and dialogue,” the team stated, affirming their commitment to quality despite financial constraints.
World-class lineup with political depth
This year’s patron is celebrated Lesotho-born filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, known for his poetic explorations of identity and history. His latest work, Ancestral Visions of the Future — a fragmented, spiritual meditation on origin and imagination — will screen in Cologne following its premiere at the 2025 Berlinale.
Opening the festival is the critically acclaimed Kenyan documentary How to Build a Library by Maia Lekow and Christopher King, which examines how education and cultural memory are sustained in African societies.
Other anticipated highlights include:
- The German premiere of Indomptables, a French-Cameroonian adaptation of Un Crime à Abidjan.
- Khartoum, a collective documentary on the lives of five civilians amid the 2023 Sudanese conflict.
- Fanon by Jean-Claude Barny, a striking biopic on revolutionary thinker Frantz Fanon.
- Katanga, la danse des scorpions by Dani Kouyaté, winner of the Étalon d’or de Yennenga at FESPACO 2025.
- Promis le ciel, the latest by Erige Sehiri, exploring migration, solidarity and women’s resistance.
- Move Ya Body by Elegance Bratton, a vibrant homage to the roots of house music and its Black LGBTQ+ pioneers.
Beyond the screen
True to its reputation, the festival organised by FilmInitiativ Köln e.V. since 1992, offers more than film. It will also feature Q&As with directors, workshops, critical city tours and a live podcast in collaboration with Schwarze Filmschaffende e.V., among other activities.
Screenings will take place at venues including the Filmforum NRW, OFF-Broadway and Rex am Ring.
More information: afrikafilmfestivalkoeln.de
