Official Selection 2026
Three generations of Igbo women navigate love and societal expectation, pushing relationships to their limits.
RETURNING MOTHER FILM STRAND
Best Director Nominee
UK PREMIERE
Beyond the Last Mile is a documentary chronicling the extraordinary life of Dr Lillian Nomathemba Cingo, a trailblazing healthcare pioneer.
RETURNING MOTHER FILM STRAND
UK PREMIERE
Inside a looping, dreamlike house, a young Black woman is forced to confront everything buried beneath the surface: grief, memory, and lyrics once written as protection.
URBAN SYMPHONY FILM STRAND
Best Music Supervision in Film Nominee
A talented ballet dancer who finishes her training routine one evening, is faced with a chilling realisation.
URBAN SYMPHONY FILM STRAND
Best Music Supervision in Film Nominee
It’s Cassandra’s birthday and her hair stylist just cancelled. With no backup plan, undone hair and growing desperation, she heads to Peckham in search of someone who can help.
URBAN SYMPHONY FILM STRAND
Best Narrative Film Nominee
Best Director Nominee
Inside a therapy office, Mariana faces the heartbreaking process of accepting the end of her first love.
LOVE CURRENT FILM STRAND
Best Actor Nominee
Free Joan Little tells the story of the 1975 groundbreaking case of the first woman in U.S history to be acquitted for using deadly force to resist sexual assault. Joan was a Black incarcerated woman in North Carolina who killed her white prison guard who was trying to attack her.
URBAN SYMPHONY FILM STRAND
Best Documentary Film Nominee
UK PREMIERE
Good Home Training explores how generations of Black women have redefined the home as a place of cultural inheritance, creativity, and care – deeply influencing the ways we live, gather, and remember.
SENIOR RISING FILM STRAND
After his mother disappears, 13-year-old Ezra secretly cares for his grandmother with dementia. He’s determined to keep their fragile world from unravelling and to protect the only family he has left.
SENIOR RISING FILM STRAND
Best Actor Nominee
Listen to Me is a documentry story of three women on the front lines of the maternal health movement, who walk the delicate tightrope of institutional racism and birth in the United States.
PERCEPTIONS CHANGED FILM STRAND
Best Documentary Film Nominee
This documentary captures the heartbeat behind a youth-led short film created through LYM Productions, following the young creatives as they navigate the vulnerability, pressure, and pride of telling their own stories.
TEACHING SOULS FILM STRAND
As bickering siblings Faye and James prepare for their beloved grandfather’s funeral, a confident young woman who neither of them recognises, arrives at the church. Matilda’s Arrived is a tongue-in-cheek exploration of family dynamics that flipping the narrative of age and expectations.
SENIOR RISING FILM STRAND
Best Narrative Film Nominee
Set in the countryside, a mother drops her college student daughter, now finished up her weekend job at home, to the bus heading to the city – and to life without her.
UNAPOLOGETIC GIRLHOOD FILM STRAND
Best Actor Nominee
Best Director Nominee
A young woman overcomes generational trauma, domestic abuse and homelessness while never losing hope of finding her missing child.
LOVE CURRENT FILM STRAND
Best Narrative Film Nominee
From zero to hero, we follow the life of Nathen, who’s been pushed around for too long. He soon encounters his alter ego who transforms into his hero and battles on his behalf in difficult situations. However, Nathen quickly discovers that a hero’s journey can lead to complicated consequences.
URBAN SYMPHONY FILM STRAND
Best Music Supervision in Film Nominee
When a retired doctor in rural Pakistan faces increasing personal & operational difficulties at her low-cost maternal healthcare center, she rethinks if she wants to keep it functioning.
RETURNING MOTHER FILM STRAND
Best Documentary Film Nominee
When a fairy’s body dysmorphia leads her down to a dark mental state, she is forced to confront her intrusive thoughts.
UNAPOLOGETIC GIRLHOOD FILM STRAND
Path of Her Own follows Kaif Jama, a young Somali actress and writer living in a conservative society. By embracing her identity and pursuing a career in acting and writing, she challenges expectations and societal pressures.
TEACHING SOULS FILM STRAND
Best Documentary Film Nominee
Little Red Riding Hood gets a 21st Century twist as we follow a lonely young girl who becomes entangled with Wolf, a charismatic gang leader offering her the love and sense of belonging absent from her home life.
UNAPOLOGETIC GIRLHOOD FILM STRAND
Oyin has spent years learning how not to look back. As a child, she was abused, and she survived the only way she knew how by staying quiet, by growing up too quickly, by convincing herself it was over. Then she meets Adura who may help to transform Oyin’s life.
UNAPOLOGETIC GIRLHOOD FILM STRAND
This is a documentary film that delves into the lives of girls and women with vision loss, challenging viewers to perceive beauty beyond sight. Through their stories, it aims to redefine societal norms of beauty, inviting a deeper understanding and appreciation.
PERCEPTIONS CHANGED FILM STRAND
Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) has been serving in the House of Representatives since January 2019. But just because Pressley was talented and experienced did not mean her path to politics was smooth. See how Pressley brok through quintessential barriers for women of color in a state mostly known for dynastic politics.
PERCEPTIONS CHANGED FILM STRAND
After a tarot reading predicts the downfall of her closest friendship, Olivia gets drawn by a secret love for another girl that becomes too difficult to hide.
LOVE CURRENT FILM STRAND
After her grandmother passes, Destiny must reconcile with her estranged sister, Serenity, to honor her grandmother’s final wish. In Hawai‘i, Destiny confronts grief and strained family ties while learning to swim with Serenity’s guidance, exploring how love, family, and connection help us stay afloat through life’s turbulent waters, highlighting Black sisterhood and healing.
TEACHING SOULS FILM STRAND
Lovett Hines is an 80-year-old Black music educator in Philadelphia whose classroom has helped shape generations of musicians. The Philadelphia Sensei traces how one mentor’s method becomes a cultural lineage, carried forward through sound, discipline, and love for community.
TEACHING SOULS FILM STRAND
Best Music Supervision In Film
There is a long-standing myth that Black people and water do not mix. The myth is so deep-seated that there are bodies of scholarly work dedicated to the narrative. The result of this long-standing stereotype can have negative ramifications across generations. But what if we disrupt these narratives and remember our ancestral connections to water?
TEACHING SOULS FILM STRAND
A young mother, worn down by a life she never chose, lives under the quiet weight of an interrupted future. Pushed into motherhood too early, her unresolved anger permeates her relationship with her young son. When he returns from the city, old wounds resurface, revealing the fragile space where love, resentment and harm coexist.
RETURNING MOTHER FILM STRAND
Best Actor Nominee
Alone in lockdown, a mourning young man struggles with grief over the loss of his mother. As comfort, Ethan decides to volunteer for an NHS Covid helpline to support others. Unexpectedly he receives a call one night from a troubled woman on the edge and this call reveals his unresolved trauma and the inner conflict his new profession brings.
URBAN SYMPHONY FILM STRAND
Best Director Nominee
PREMIERE
Grace, a witty 13-year-old girl, with big dreams and the rare gift of making everyone around her laugh, takes us back to her early childhood years with her close-knit, loving farmer family in Kenya: a time with lots of fun, but also a time when disaster almost split her family apart.
UNAPOLOGETIC GIRLHOOD FILM STRAND
When Alannah finally decides she’s ready for a baby, she and her wife Amara dive headfirst into the wild world of sperm donors, DIY insemination, and awkward conversations, all while trying to keep their sanity (and dignity) intact!
LOVE CURRENT FILM STRAND
Best Narrative Film Nominee
Find Out More About The Film Strands
These films are packed together in Film Strands to bring you the best viewing, entertainment and thought-provoking experience.
So, you won’t just watch one film, in most of our Film Strands you’ll watch at least three!
Click the button below to find out just how much more value we’ve broght to your festival experience.
