The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) is set to return for its 33rd edition, scheduled to run from 29th November to 14th December, 2025, in New York.
By Vivian Nneka Nwajiaku
The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) is set to return for its 33rd edition, scheduled to run from 29th November to 14th December, 2025, in New York.
This year’s programme spotlights contemporary films from across Africa and the diaspora, selected to reflect the complexity and creativity of African storytelling across generations and geographies. Landmark African films, once banned in their home countries or abroad for challenging social, political, and religious norms, will also be screened in a special section titled “Silenced Voices: Cinema and Censorship”.
Among the feature films screening are Achille Ronaimou’s Diya (2025, France/Germany/Chad/Côte d’Ivoire), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier in the year, and Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar’s Carissa (2024, South Africa), which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival 2024. ADIFF 2025 will also host a Gala screening of The Ants (Les Fourmis) (2025, Morocco), directed by Yassine Fennane.
Also screening are documentaries, including Ben Proudfoot’s The Eyes of Ghana (2025, Ghana), executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, which had its world premiere at this year’s TIFF, as well as Khalid Zairi’s Mora Is Here (2023, Morocco) and Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert’s Mother City (2024, South Africa), both of which screened at this year’s Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO).
As part of the ADIFF programme, a section titled “Pan-African Legacies: Malcolm X and Fanon” will screen two films about the life and impact of Frantz Fanon, a physician and psychiatrist who supported the Algerian War of Independence from France: a documentary by Cheikh Djemaï titled Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work (2001, Algeria/France/Tunisia), and Jean-Claude Barny’s biographical drama, Fanon (2024, Guadeloupe, France), which will be the closing night film.
Selected titles at ADIFF 2025 are curated to explore resilience, artistic freedom, and identity. “These films embody the power, artistry, and political consciousness of African cinema today,” says ADIFF Co-Director Dr. Reinaldo Barroso-Spech. “From the Sahel to the Cape, filmmakers are reclaiming space to tell stories of beauty, struggle, and survival that speak to the global human experience.”
ADIFF 2025 will also offer a Mini Virtual Festival, with twenty films from the festival lineup available to stream in the USA and Canada. Festival passes and tickets are available on the ADIFF website for both virtual and on-site screenings. The screening schedule is available here.