African Women Film Festival 2025: Voices of Resilience: The Power of Storytelling in African Cinema

African Women Film Festival 2025

5-7 November 2025

Voices of Resilience:

The Power of Storytelling in African Cinema

A three-day celebration of the creativity, resilience, and global impact of African women in cinema

https://ii.umich.edu/asc/news-events/events/awff2025.html

It is heartwarming to welcome some of the most talented and critically acclaimed filmmakers to our campus for the first African Women Film Festival ever organized in the state of Michigan and one of the first in the United States. The festival would showcase the creativity and vivacity of the African women in telling stories that build bridges and connect people across different cultures in Africa and beyond. By bringing these women to our campus, the African Studies Center once again demonstrates the importance of serving as a public resource on Africa and Michigan’s involvement with it for our state and local communities.

– Omolade Adunbi, director of the African Studies Center

This year’s festival centers on the theme “Voices of Resilience: The Power of Storytelling in African Cinema,” exploring how women filmmakers are redefining narratives and bringing new energy to the film industry.

The event features award-winning filmmakers from across the continent alongside University of Michigan faculty experts for film screenings, Q&A sessions, and panel discussions. Conversations will address topics such as representation, gender, and the changing landscape of African media—creating space for dialogue among filmmakers, scholars, students, and the broader community.

 

Panel discussion topics include:

- Women Making Films in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities

- Toxic Circuits: Uncovering the Global Afterlives of E-Waste Through the Lens of Film

- Preserving History: Women’s Activism and the Power of Representation in African Films

- Filmmaking in Africa: The Nollywood Example Technologies, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Filmmaking in Africa

- Building Bridges, Making Movies: Africa Connects to Its Diaspora

 

See report on the African Women Film Festival in Black Camera Spring 2026

(added June 13, 2026) 

 

A Reflection on the 2025 African Women Film Festival in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Marlotte De Jong, Marwa Hassan

pp. 209-212

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/blc.00110

 

African Women’s Films, Festivals, and Frontiers

Mahen Bonetti

pp. 213-217

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/blc.00111

 

“Like Tales around the Fireplace”: A Report

Rejoice Abutsa

pp. 218-222

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2979/blc.00112