New York African Film Festival to run a record number of films May 7 to May 31

The 32nd edition of the New York African Film Festival (NYAFF), running May 1 through May 31, will feature a record number of films this year.

About the 32nd New York African Film Festival

African Film Festival, Inc. (AFF) has announced that NYAFF will screen 125 contemporary and classic films from Africa and its diaspora at and in partnership with Film at Lincoln Center (FLC), the Maysles Documentary Center, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Under the banner “Fluid Horizons: A Shifting Lens on a Hopeful World,” this edition of the festival celebrates the African youth who have turned to their cameras to document their experiences and the influence of those who came before them. Genres include comedies, dramas, thrillers, documentaries, experimental films and more.

“In a world of uncertainty, this year’s presents a vision of the future through the eyes of Africa’s youth—bold, determined, and endlessly creative. As the youngest and fastest-growing continent, Africa is brimming with stories that demand to be told, not just as reflections of today’s challenges but as blueprints for a future shaped by resilience and possibility,” said Mahen Bonetti, NYAFF founder and AFF executive director. “This year’s festival is a testament to the power of cinema to inspire, provoke, and remind us that hope is always in motion.”

Film at Lincoln Center

On Wednesday, May 7, the festival launches at Film at Lincoln Center where the Opening Night selection is the New York premiere of Afolabi Olalekan’s feature debut, Freedom Way, a film following the lives of nine individuals set on a collision course in a fast-paced thriller shot on location in Lagos.

The Centerpiece film is Mwine’s Memories of Love Returned, an intimate, nuanced documentary about the transformative power of photography, executive produced by Steven Soderbergh and named best documentary at the Africa International Film Festival.

Closing Night will feature the shorts program “In the Arms of the Mother,” comprised of films by or about African women from all walks of life. A special focus on Democratic Republic of the Congo will bring the works of veteran and emerging Congolese filmmakers such as Mwezé Ngangura, Balufu Bakupa-Kanyinda, Nelson Makengo, David-Pierre Fila, Sammy Baloji, and Xavier Mwamba, including the U.S. premiere of Baloji’s gripping documentary The Tree of Authenticity about the ecological destruction caused by colonization.

North American premiere

The festival will also host the North American premiere of Furu by Fatou Cissé, the daughter of legendary filmmaker Souleymane Cissé, which explores the impact of forced marriage on young women in Mali.

Two additional features making their U.S. debuts include Awam Amkpa’s The Man Died, based on the harrowing prison memoir by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka; and Ndar, Saga Waalo, Ousmane William Mbaye’s powerful documentary about Saint-Louis, Senegal, the port of colonial penetration into West Africa.

Special programs

Special programs include a free panel presented by AFF and OkayAfrica on May 10 entitled “From Then to Now: Celebrating 15 Years of African Cinema.” Panelists include NYAFF alums Fatou Cissé, who also honors the profound legacy of her father, the late Souleymane Cissé; Congolese animator and filmmaker Jean-Michel Kibushi; and Afolabi Olalekan, director of the festival’s Opening Night film Freedom Way.

Art exhibits

Two free art exhibits running May 8–13 in the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center include “Congo RE-Vue: A Fresh Perspective by Emerging Congolese Talent,” a dynamic digital photo exhibition dedicated to highlighting the vibrant talent of the next generation of Congolese artists; and Bereket Adamu’s “All Night We Waited for Morning, All Morning We Waited for Night,” a welded steel light sculpture and animated video that reflects on African resistance, migration, and global interconnectedness.

For FLC film tickets, visit filmlinc.org/african. Contact [email protected] for information about attending the Opening Night Party.

Maysles Documentary Center

The festival continues at Maysles Documentary Center from May 15 to 18. At this Harlem venue, the NYAFF will invite audiences into the backyard of our communities — specifically those of the Senegalese, wider African and African American communities — illuminating our commonalities, calling out our distinct issues and celebrating our dynamic cultures.

The Opening Night film, The Man Who Plants Baobabs by Michel K. Zongo, brings viewers into the world of climate champion El Hadji Salifou Ouédraogo, who has spent the past 50 years of his life planting baobab trees in his village in Burkina Faso, transforming barren lands into thriving ecosystems. This segment will also feature the North American premiere of The Last Shore by Jean-François Ravagnan, a poignant documentary about the viral drowning death of a young Gambian migrant in Venice’s Grand Canal while onlookers hurled racists taunts; the U.S. premiere of Timpi Tampa a debut by Adama Bineta Sow, a social critique of colorism; and a wide range of documentary films.

For tickets, visit https://www.maysles.org/.

Brooklyn Academy of Music under the name FilmAfrica

On Friday, May 23, NYAFF lands at the Brooklyn Academy of Music under the name FilmAfrica, during DanceAfrica and runs through May 29.

Similar to DanceAfrica, this leg of the festival shines the spotlight on Mozambique, with the African nation’s first feature film Mueda, Memória e Massacre (Mueda, Memory and Massacre), a 1979 film by Ruy Guerra. Other Mozambiquan titles include Kuxa Kanema: The Birth of Cinema by Margarida Cardoso and Granma Nineteen and the Soviet’s Secret by João Ribeiro Opening Night at BAM will see the North American premiere of Angèle Diabang’s So Long A Letter, the stirring adaptation of Senegalese author Mariama Bâ’s celebrated 1979 feminist novel, which won the first Noma Award for Publishing in Africa and which was rated among the top 12 in a tally of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in 2002. Katanga: The Dance of the Scorpions, Étalon d’Or de Yennenga (Best Film) at FESPACO 2025 by Burkinabé director Dani Kouyaté, which interprets Shakespeare’s Macbeth through an African lens, will have its New York premiere. For tickets, visit https://www.bam.org/film/2025/filmafrica.

NYAFF culminates this year with a free outdoor screening of multi-language films at Harlem’s St. Nicholas Park (135^th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue) on May 31 at 7 pm.

Films include the feature Sadrack by Cameroonian director Narcisse Wandji (French with English subtitles) and two shorts: Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove, Nigeria, by Sosena Solomon and Echoes of the Lake by Nico Muñoz (Spanish with English subtitles).

The programs of AFF are made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Ford Foundation, Domenico Paulon Foundation, Bradley Family Foundation, Johnson Family Foundation, Color Congress, NYC & Company,, French Cultural Services, Manhattan Portage, Organization de la Francophonie, Essentia Water, Ministre du Tourisme République Démocratique du Congo, ZOPMEDIA, South African Consulate General, and National Film and Video Foundation.

More information

For more information about AFF can be found at www.africanfilmny.org.