NBO Film Festival returns 15-25 October
This year, NBO Film Festival brings a bigger program than ever, with three juried competitions, our first filmmaker retrospective, and an expanded industry programme; we’re making cinema part of public life.
African films are travelling the world, but African audiences too often don’t get to see them at home and with others. We believe African cinema must live with African audiences, not only travel outward.
This year’s festival invites us to make cinema part of our public life.
This year, NBO will be a place for audiences to discover new work, recognise excellence, revisit important bodies of work, debate ideas and support what gets made next.
Cinema For Us
What Cinema for Us means at NBO 2026
We will celebrate and recognise cinema with three juried competitions:
The Fiction Feature Film competition returns with two new competitions being announced.
The first-ever Nick Wambugu Prize for Documentary will be presented for the best documentary in competition.
A prize for the best Short Film Fiction in competition.
We will revisit cinema with our first filmmaker retrospective, dedicated to Alain Gomis, supported by EU National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) . His films have been screened at the festival. With Gomis in attendance for both audience and industry events, we will screen and discuss his body of work and its evolution over the years.
We will celebrate cinema to come with an expanded industry programme, including the NBO Project Showcase, labs and professional exchanges.
We will also enjoy cinema in public life through screenings, community programmes, city dialogues, and filmmaker conversations across Nairobi.
The competition jury chairs will be announced on 4 September, followed by the three competition selections on 7 September.
The Alain Gomis retrospective line-up will be revealed on 9 September, with the opening film and major Special Presentations following on 10 September.