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South African filmmakers are making a strong impression at this year’s 79th Cannes International Film Festival in France, as African storytelling gains significant prominence at the world’s most prestigious film festival.
While African cinema has long featured at Cannes, this year signals a shift, with filmmakers from the continent playing a much more central role in shaping the global industry conversation.
“I think it’s been incredible to see a lot of international filmmakers here, with Hollywood sort of out of the game this year,” Cape Town-based actor and producer Casey Diepeveen told the Sunday Times. “It’s provided a space for African voices with riveting films. Our [African] Pavilion and the spaces that have been created specifically for African filmmakers are all buzzing.”
Diepeveen is in pre-production on Pieces, written and directed by Imran Hamdulay, whose The Heart Is a Muscle was South Africa’s official submission for the 2026 Academy Awards.
Set on the Cape Flats and filmed in English and Afrikaans, Pieces follows Salma and her two sons after the loss of their father as they navigate grief, adolescence and belonging. The project has secured R6m in funding from the National Film and Video Foundation’s (NFVF) micro-budget slate, with filming due to begin in September.
Another South African project in development is Baptism of Silence, a coming-of-age drama written and directed by Kanya Viljoen and Emilie Badenhorst and produced by Diepeveen. Backed by the NFVF development fund, filming is planned for April 2027.
South African documentary RE: COLLECTION was selected as one of 11 Cannes Spotlighted Projects at the Marché du Film. Directed by Dane Dodds and produced by Antoinette Engel, the film investigates the legacy of colonialism and race science through the theft of San (Bushmen) and Khoi human remains and artefacts taken from the Kalahari to European museums.
“Unfortunately, this sort of ‘race science’ which previously informed events such as the Holocaust and apartheid seems to be on the rise again today,” said Dodds. “So we feel this is a really urgent time to tell the story and to look at what collecting back the human remains has meant for their descendants, in laying their ancestors to rest spiritually, but also in restitution and being acknowledged as a people that had essentially experienced the first genocide of the 20th century.”
Filmmaker Zoe Ramushu and producer Tshepiso Chipaka Phiri have been nominated for the Impact Leadership Award at Monday’s Screen International Global Production Awards. Ramushu is founder of production app Wrapped, while Phiri has worked on projects including uBettina Wethu, The Woman King and Umbrella Men.
The South African feature Masinga, directed by Mark Engels and starring Hakeem Kae-Kazim, receives its Cannes premium screening on Sunday.
“We’re looking forward to the audience response, as the film won seven awards, including Best International Film, in India at the Mei International Film Festival, as well as three awards at the Khajuraho Film Festival,” said Engels. “I’m here negotiating my next film, Time After Time, with an excellent response so far.”
African cinema is also strongly represented in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section with films including Ben’Imana by Rwanda’s Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo; Congo Boy by Rafiki Fariala; and Moroccan feature La Más Dulce by Laïla Marrakchi. Nigerian twins Arie and Chuko Esiri are also generating buzz with Clarissa in the Directors’ Fortnight.
The Cannes Film Festival runs until May 23.
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