Festival Archive
Thirteen years of African cinema in Wales.
Since 2013, Watch Africa Film Festival has grown from a Kickstarter-funded screening tour into Wales’ home for African cinema. Every edition had its own theme, its own partners and its own films — and together they tell one story. Travel through it, chapter by chapter.
13
Editions since 2013
168
Films screened
10,000+
Viewers
2013
Introducing Cinema Africa
Watch Africa Film Festival launched in Cardiff, founded by Fadhili Maghiya alongside the Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel. A Kickstarter-funded screening tour took the festival to venues across Wales — from Cardiff University to Pontio in Bangor and Neuadd Ogwen in Bethesda.
2014
South Africa @20
Marking 20 years of post-apartheid democracy, the festival joined four UK sister festivals — Africa in Motion, Film Africa, Afrika Eye, and Cambridge African Film Festival — to form the TANO network.
“The Freedom Tour” ran October 2014 – February 2015, supported by the BFI and the SA-UK Seasons.
2015
Young Africans
The festival expanded Wales-wide: 23 films screened across 9 venues between October and November 2015.
Three programme strands — Young Africans, From Africa with Love, and The North Africa Spring — reflected the breadth of African stories. Supported by Cardiff University’s School of Modern Languages.
2016
Pan-Africanism
Continuing the festival’s focus on connecting diaspora and continental African narratives — examining shared identity, history, and the ties that cross borders.
2017
Africa’s Lost Classics
Co-presented with the TANO network and the University of Glasgow’s AHRC-funded Africa’s Lost Classics project.
Running 23 October – 12 November 2017, the programme brought rare and restored African films to Welsh audiences — including works by Safi Faye, Djibril Diop Mambéty, and Moustapha Alassane.
2018
Africa Against All Odds
A landmark edition featuring a special screening of Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch — with the director in attendance for a Q&A.
Programmed as part of Film Hub Wales’ inclusive cinema initiative.
2019
Afrofuturism
A curated short-film programme celebrating sci-fi and Afrofuturist visions — screening works including Wanuri Kahiu’s Pumzi, Neill Blomkamp’s Alive in Joburg, Kibwe Tavares’ Jonah, and Muchiri Njenga’s Kichwateli, alongside the Cameroonian feature Les Saignantes.
2020
Trans-national Cinematic Collaborations
A scaled-back edition shaped by the global pandemic, focused on cross-border digital collaboration and keeping the spirit of African cinema alive during an extraordinary moment of disruption.
2021
Bringing Africa to Wales
WAFF went fully online for the first time: 19–28 February 2021, hosted via the Chapter Player.
Ten feature and documentary films, live Q&As, an African folklore workshop, and a partnership with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Supported by Welsh Government Cultural Recovery funding through Ffilm Cymru.
2022
Ujamaa / Ubuntu
The first full in-person return after COVID.
The theme drew on Julius Nyerere’s Tanzanian concept of Ujamaa (cooperative humanism) and the pan-African philosophy of Ubuntu — the idea that we are who we are through one another.
2023
Watch Africa @10
A decade of African cinema in Wales.
The 10th-anniversary edition marked ten years of WAFF — ten years of films, communities, conversations, and cultural exchange on a Welsh screen.
2024
Re-Education on African Cinema
An extended year-long programme of screenings across Cardiff, launched 25 May 2024.
The programme covered sports, politics, heritage, immigration, Afrofuturist features, and a free family short-film package at Chapter Arts Centre — expanding WAFF’s reach beyond a single festival weekend.
2025
Express Your Africa
23–25 May 2025, Chapter Arts Centre.
The 11th edition introduced WAFF’s first-ever Awards Ceremony, four official prizes — Best Feature, Best Short, Best Documentary, and the Jury Award — and a dedicated Family Day.
Soft Love by Hawa Holmes took Best Feature. WAFF Club membership launched, alongside a monthly screening programme.
From The Archive
Moments across the editions.
The Story Continues
Thirteen chapters down. The next one is being written now.
The archive is where we have been. The programme, the monthly screenings and WAFF Club are where we are going — and there is room for you in all three.
