Get ready, Atlanta! The African Film Festival Atlanta (AFFATL) 2025 is back for its 4th edition from March 13th to 17th, 2025. Organized by the African Film & Arts Foundation Inc. (AFAF), this year’s festival is all about celebrating the global impact of Nollywood.
AFFATL has teamed up with the Nollywood Travel Film Festival (NTFF) to showcase the best of Nigerian cinema. This year’s theme, “African Voices, Global Stage: The Nollywood Influence,” highlights Nollywood’s power in shaping African storytelling on a worldwide scale.
The Line Up
AFFATL 2025 features gripping narratives, eye-opening documentaries, and award-winning performances. The Opening Night film Mojisola comes from acclaimed Nollywood filmmaker Kenneth Gyang. It stars the award-winning Chioma Chukwuka Akpotha, alongside Anthony Fitzgerald and Tomi Ojo.
The Centerpiece film, The Man Died, features Wale Ojo portraying Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, who fights for truth under a brutal regime. For Closing Night, Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory explores how a simple bungalow at the University of Ibadan shaped Wole Soyinka’s legacy.
Other must-watch narrative films include the Ugandan drama Makula, a shocking story of a dream marriage that turns into a nightmare of sex slavery and organ trafficking. The film stars Nisha Kalema. Another standout is This Unexpected Love, a film that weaves Haitian and Nigerian traditions through the experiences of international students. This one stars Nollywood icon Stella Damasus.
Documentaries to look out for.
AFFATL isn’t just about fiction. This year’s documentary selection brings real-life stories to the screen.
AFFATL isn’t just about fiction. This year’s documentary selection brings real-life stories to the screen. Le cinéma de Marie-Josèphe honors Martinique’s Marie-Josèphe Yoyotte, the brilliant three-time César-winning film editor behind Microcosmos and Winged Migration. Price of Hope tells the powerful story of young girls in Kenya who are bravely escaping FGM and child marriage. Ichi: Marks in Time dives into the lost art of scarification marks known as ‘ichi’ among the Igbo-speaking people of Nigeria. Through photography and storytelling, it brings this fading tradition back to life.
One of the goals of AFFATL is to provide action-driven input in improving the image of the continent through the showcase of films that change the narratives of people of African descent. By integrating Atlanta’s unique features as a dynamic social, educational, artistic, cultural, and film production hub, the African Film Festival Atlanta showcases passions, subtleties, and trends in African cinema.
Check out the full schedule here. Interested in attending? Grab your tickets here.
African Film & Arts Foundation Inc. (AFAF) is a non-profit 501(C )(3) media arts organization based in Atlanta, Georgia. Their mission is to magnify and celebrate the visions, voices, lives, and stories of people from Africa and the African Diaspora through the lens of film & the arts. This mission is partly realized through their signature events, Cinema for the Culture: Film Screenings + Masterclass Series and the African Film Festival Atlanta (AFFATL), which are anchored in showcasing voices, visions, passions, subtleties, and trends in African/African diaspora arts and culture.
Photo courtesy of African Film Festival Atlanta (AFFATL)
Gugulethu Nxumalo
Gugu is the Social Media Manager and General News Reporter for UrbanGeekz
