The 83rd Venice International Film Festival will take place from 2nd–12th September, 2026.
By Adedamola Jones Adedayo
The Venice International Film Festival has unveiled the official lineup for its 83rd edition, with African filmmakers and productions securing places across several competitive and non-competitive sections of the festival.
In Orizzonti, a section dedicated to debut films, emerging talents and new aesthetic trends in world cinema, Cameroonian filmmaker Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu will compete with La Maison Du Vent (House of the Wind). The film follows an 80-year-old woman who forms an unexpected bond with a young woman in her neighbourhood, a relationship that gradually reshapes her family, responsibilities, and hopes.
For the Orizzonti Short Films competition, Lebanese-Moroccan director Shaden Safieddine Tazi will present Quelques instants de bonheur (A Few Moments of Happiness). The short follows a Lebanese filmmaker in Paris who witnesses the devastation of war in her homeland through her phone while in bed.
African representation also extends to Venice Immersive, the festival’s section devoted to immersive media and XR storytelling in any length. Here, Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako will compete with Artou, which tells the story of a family determined to fulfil their late father’s final wish to be buried alongside his own father in their ancestral village in Mauritania. Out of competition, Belgian-Tunisian director Karim Ben Khelifa will showcase In 36,000 Ways, an immersive meditation on contemporary warfare explored through the intimate, site-specific evolution of his ongoing project.
In Venice Classics, which showcases restored masterpieces from archives and cultural institutions around the world, the audience will revisit Udju Azul di Yonta (The Blue Eyes of Yonta), the acclaimed 1991 Portugal–Guinea-Bissau co-production directed by Bissau-Guinean filmmaker Flora Gomes. Set in the aftermath of the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, the film explores a poignant triangle of unrequited love against the backdrop of a nation rebuilding itself.
Beyond the official selection of Venice 2026, African cinema is also represented in the festival’s adjunct programmes: Final Cut In Venice, and Giornate Degli Autori.
Final Cut In Venice, the work-in-progress sidebar for films from Africa and the Middle East, welcomes six titles, five of which are African co-productions. These African co-productions are A Quarter to Thursday (France/Belgium/Algeria), directed by Sofia Djama; Eldorado, the Taste of the South (Morocco/France/Italy/Norway), directed by Alaa Edine Aljem; Madi Makambu (DR Congo/France/Belgium), directed by Madi Makambu; Mehal Sefari (Ethiopia/Canada/ Germany/Netherlands/Norway/Saudi Arabia), directed by Mehal Sefari; and Plague (Balaa) (Tunisia/France/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/ Slovenia), directed by Youssef Chebbi.
Meanwhile, Giornate degli Autori continues its commitment to auteur-driven cinema with a female-focused lineup that includes two African co-productions: Dear Ajayi (Nigeria/Germany), directed by Damilola Orimogunje, and Al Baraneya (Netherlands/Egypt/Belgium/Saudi Arabia), directed by Ashgan El-Hamus.
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival will take place from 2nd to 12th September, 2026.