PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS: UNMISSABLE SCREENINGS & EVENTS

The 2026 edition is set to deliver an explosive week of cinema and industry action:

• Opening Night Gala: The festival kicks off on Wednesday, February 25th, with the high-energy comedy-heist, Inside Job (2025) , from acclaimed Kenyan director David ‘Tosh’ Gitonga. Starring comedic powerhouses Mammito Eunice and Jacky Vike , the film is a wildly chaotic mission for justice and laughs.
• A-List Features: The selection features global festival winners, including Mati Diop's Golden Bear-winning documentary Dahomey (2024) , Dani Kouyaté’s award-winning Afro-Noir thriller Katanga: The Dance of the Scorpions (2024)—a powerful re-imagining of Skakespeare’s Macbeth , and the UNESCO Fellini Medal winner, The Fisherman (2024) from Ghana.
• Kenyan Pioneers: The programme pays tribute to cinematic legends with a special tribute to the late Ann Mungai on Sunday, February 22nd, featuring her groundbreaking 1992 film Saikati. Ann Mungai died in November 2025. The festival closes on Sunday, March 1st, with a heartfelt Charles Bukeko (Papa Shirandula) Tribute , highlighting his work in Bob Nyanja’s classic comedy-drama Malooned! (2007).
• Socially Conscious Cinema: Featured films include Nick Reding and Wanuri Kahiu’s raw drama Sarah (2024) , addressing FGC and early marriage in the Loita Hills , and Nick Wambugu’s urgent documentary The People Shall (2025), capturing the raw energy of contemporary Kenyan youth-led activism.
• Industry and Development: A robust Industry programme will heavily focus on series production, audience development, and film distribution. This is complemented by the North Rift and Western Kenya Film and TV Summit on March 1st , and a Film in Education programme in partnership with Tunga Media Afrika. The festival is introducing a new initiative, The Youth Critics Circle, to develop a new generation of youth critics for the African film industry.

CURATION AND COLLABORATION

The festival’s commitment to bold, diverse narratives is exemplified by key partnerships:

• The Short Films Programme: The short films programme includes a curated selection by Lagos-based distributor FilmJoint, which includes Barbara Minishi’s ‘Inheritance’ (2024) and Nmezi Joy’s ‘Slot’ (2025). Other powerful independent titles include Jordy Sank’s South African drama Fleas/Amazeze (2025) and Lydia Matata’s emotionally resonant Kenyan short Float (2025).
• Key Distributors: The festival celebrates the power brokers ensuring African stories reach global audiences, including Tunga Media Afrika, Sudu Connexion, Okada Media, and Rushlake Media, who bring key films to the programme in the 2026 edition.

QUOTES

“We are glad that we have made it to the fourth edition. I genuinely believe that the 5th edition was exciting, but we didn’t have the level of industry engagement that we are planning to have in 2026. So I am not only looking forward to the films, which are really amazing, but also the industry programme. Since series production, mostly driven by streaming as we see on YouTube, Netflix and the rest, represents the biggest growth and revenue opportunity in the African market, we have made our industry programmeto prioritize skills that are transferable between features and series, but with a series-first mindset.

We are also doing the program differently… we begin with a tribute to a film industry trailblazer Anne Mungai, before we do the official opening with Tosh Gitonga’s film, Inside Job. We are also hoping to cause some movement with the North Rift and Western Kenya Film and TV summit, which will also allow us to honour one of the trailblazers, Charles Bukeko, whose work has shaped the careers of many creatives from our region.

As usual, we strongly prioritize partnerships and collaborations, and the film distributors have greatly shaped the 2026 line-up by providing the films and giving our audiences the opportunity to interact with their own stories in a very accessible way”
- Peter Pages Bwire, Founder, Kitale Film Week

CONTACT

Peter Pages Bwire

Founder and Team Leader

Email: info@kitalefilmweek.org

Mobile: +254768348234

Web: kitalefilmweek.org