The Africa International Film Festival returns for its 14th edition this week with a conviction that feels different from hype cycles of the past. AFRIFF 2025 is not only opening a festival. It is opening a market. Insiders on both the studio side and the funding side are already framing this edition as a turning point. This is by far its most commercially ambitious edition to date. Privately, executives have called it “the biggest industrial leap since Africa Magic.”
The 14th AFRIFF runs Nov. 2 to 8 across Lagos under the theme “Rhythms of the Continent: The Afrobeats Film Movement.” The festival will screen more than 100 titles from across Africa and global Black cinema.
“AFRIFF has always been where talent meets global attention,”
But it is the new AFRIFF Film and Content Market that is commanding the most attention. The industry programme runs Nov. 3 to 6 and will operate as a transactional platform where African projects can seek growth. It is Nigeria’s first market designed for rights exchange, co production talks, syndication, licensing and structured monetisation pathways for African content. Deal meetings sit at the centre of the week.
The Federal Ministry of Arts Culture Tourism and the Creative Economy has endorsed the platform. MTN Nigeria, SPCINE Brazil, Japan Foundation, Goldfinch and SOOP are participating as institutional partners.
For founder and executive director Chioma Ude, the ambition is a straight line.
“AFRIFF has always been where talent meets global attention,” she tells Catalyst. “Now the mandate is not only discovery. It is revenue. This is the year where we actively build the infrastructure that lets African storytellers monetise, retain rights and participate in the upside of their work. The ecosystem moment has arrived.”
Opening night brings Three Cold Dishes from Asurf Oluseyi and executive producers Burna Boy and Osas Ighodaro. Closing night will spotlight Afroculture: The Making, a documentary by Flavour N’abania which also features legendary Senegalese icon Baaba Maal.
AFRIFF will also stage the first edition of the Herbert Wigwe Awards for Excellence. The honour will recognise African leaders shaping the creative economy and future facing continental development. The opening ceremony will recognise Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima and Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah. The closing ceremony will honour technocrat Hakeem Muri Okunola and actor David Oyelowo.
This is AFRIFF signalling loudly that African cinema has entered a different era. The new chapter is deal centred not hope centred.
“We are done with romanticising possibility” one studio buyer told Catalyst in Lagos this week. “Africa is a serious content market and must be treated as such.”
Chioma Ude frames it simply.
“This is the year of execution,” Ude says. “We are here to do business.”
