THE BEST OF ADIFF 2026

Following a landmark 33rd edition that showcased a powerful selection of over 70 films from more than 30 countries, the African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) is proud to present its traditional "Best of ADIFF" encore series. Held during Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, January 16–18, 2026, at Teachers College, Columbia University, this curated series brings back the films that resonated most deeply with tri-state area audiences.

“The audience response to these films confirms the importance of cinema that is both politically grounded and formally daring,” said ADIFF Co-Director Dr. Reinaldo B. Spech. “This selection invites audiences to engage with vital narratives of resistance, identity, the enduring human spirit across the global diaspora, and the artistic creativity of cinema”.

Festival Highlights: Legacy, Discovery, and Excellence

ADIFF and African-American Filmmakers: A Tradition of Independent Voices: Since its inception, ADIFF has remained dedicated to providing a premier platform for independent African-American filmmakers. The 33rd annual festival continued this legacy by opening with the New York Premiere of The Dutchman, directed by Andre Gaines, a surreal cinematic reinterpretation of Amiri Baraka’s explosive 1964 play. This is the latest in a long history of landmark films championed by the festival, including Haile Gerima’s Sankofa (1993), Joe Brewster’s The Keeper, Bernie Casey’s The Diner, Giancarlo Esposito’s Gospel Hill, and Deon Taylor’s Supremacy. The current limited theatrical release of The Dutchman stands as a testament to ADIFF's ongoing commitment to elevating independent voices.

Building on this tradition, the "Best of ADIFF" presents the independent feature Can You Stand the Rain (Dir. Eden Marryshow) on Saturday, January 17, at 8:00 PM. This evocative film follows old friends who reunite in the wake of a loss, forcing them to navigate the delicate space between buried dreams and the possibility of renewal. The screening will conclude with an intimate Q&A session with the filmmaker.

Opening Night: The Visual Heritage of The Eyes of Ghana: The series opens on Friday, January 16, at 7:00 PM, with the celebrated documentary The Eyes of Ghana (Dir. Ben Proudfoot, USA/Ghana). Executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, the film is a lyrical tribute to 93-year-old film pioneer Chris Hesse. Commissioned by Kwame Nkrumah to capture the birth of a nation, Hesse now races against time to restore a vanishing national archive, offering a poignant look at the vital role of the moving image in preserving a people's memory.

Afrofuturist Visions: Sugar Island (Dominican Republic): A highlight of the series is the presentation of the ADIFF 2025 Best Film Directed by a Woman of Color award to Johanné Gómez Terrero. Her film, Sugar Island, is a masterpiece of magical realism that follows a teenager in the sugarcane fields who is ushered into an Afrofuturist reckoning with identity through ritual and performance. Ms. Gómez Terrero will be present to receive her award and join the audience for a special Q&A.

Centennial Reflections: The Intellectual Journeys of Fanon and Malcolm X: ADIFF invites audiences to reflect on the 100th anniversary of global icons Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X. This program explores their legacies through a cinematic lens:

• Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work: An intimate documentary by Cheikh Djemaï that provides a revealing portrait of the psychiatrist and philosopher.

• Fanon: A lush biographical drama by Jean-Claude Barny that depicts Fanon’s transformative years in Blida, Algeria, during the 1950s.

Global Discovery: The Rhythm of Dammam (India): The series highlights the unique history of the African Diaspora in India with The Rhythm of Dammam. This powerful drama focuses on the Siddi community, whose family rituals and traditional Dammam music are used to address inter-generational trauma. Director Jayan Cherian will participate in a post-screening Q&A.

Full "Best of ADIFF" Schedule

• The Eyes of Ghana | Dir. Ben Proudfoot | Ghana/USA

• Males | Dir. Antonio Pitanga | Brazil

• Pan-African Legacy: Malcolm X / Frantz Fanon (Double Feature) | Includes Malcolm X: Struggle for Freedom by Lebert Bethune and Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work by Cheikh Djemaï | USA/France/Algeria

• Fanon | Dir. Jean-Claude Barny | Guadeloupe/France/Algeria

• Can You Stand the Rain (+ Q&A) | Dir. Eden Marryshow | USA

• Foreign Body | Dir. Raja Amari | Tunisia/France

• The Rhythm of Dammam (+ Q&A) | Dir. Jayan Cherian | USA/India

• Sugar Island (+ Q&A) | Dir. Johanné Gómez Terrero | Dominican Republic/Spain — Shown with short film Candombe (Dir. Rafael Deugenio, Uruguay)

Venue & Ticket Information: Screenings will take place at Teachers College, Columbia University. For tickets and more information, visit www.nyadiff.org.

PRESS CONTACT: Diarah N’Daw-Spech African Diaspora International Film Festival Tel: 212-864-1760 | Email: pr@nyadiff.org

ADIFF NYC 2025 Spotlights Trailblazing African-American Cinema,from "The Dutchman" to "Just Another Girl on the I.R.T."

33rd Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival
November 28 – December 14, 2025
New York City & Online

The African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF) returns for its 33rd annual edition with more than 70 films from 30 countries, presented across three New York City venues and through a nationwide Mini Virtual Festival. This year’s program explores the global Black experience through bold new works, restored classics, and powerful conversations that connect audiences across generations and cultures.

Festival Venues
• Teachers College, Columbia University
• Cinema Village
• Online (U.S. & Canada) through the ADIFF Mini Virtual Festival

The Dutchman

Opening Night: The Dutchman
Saturday, November 29 – Teachers College

ADIFF opens with the New York Premiere of The Dutchman, Andre Gaines’s bold new adaptation of Amiri Baraka’s legendary 1964 play. Mixing surreal tension and psychological drama, the film reframes Baraka’s explosive confrontation with race and power for today’s audience. A filmmaker Q&A and VIP reception will follow.

Spotlight Event: A Conversation with Leslie Harris
Sunday, December 7 – Cinema Village

Join ADIFF for a special conversation with filmmaker Leslie Harris following the screening of her restored milestone film, Just Another Girl on the I.R.T.. Harris was one of the first Black women to write, direct, and produce a theatrically released feature film. She will reflect on her groundbreaking career, representation in film, and the legacy of independent Black cinema.

Program Highlight: Silenced Voices – Cinema & Censorship

This special series revisits revolutionary African-American films that faced censorship, suppression, or marginalization due to their radical politics and uncompromising storytelling.

Featured titles:
• Uptight (1968), dir. Jules Dassin – censored for its sympathetic portrayal of Black militants.
• Nation Time (1972), dir. William Greaves – considered “too militant” for public television.
• Within Our Gates (1920), dir. Oscar Micheaux – widely censored for confronting racial terror.

Celebrating the centenary of Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X, the festival presents MX Struggle for Freedom (1967) and Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work. A panel on “Censorship & Cinema” with legal scholar Tanya Katerí Hernández will be held Friday, December 12 at Teachers College.

New Independent Features & Documentaries

ADIFF continues its commitment to highlighting new voices and untold stories from across the diaspora.

Highlights include:

• Who the Hell Is Regina Jones? – an overdue portrait of the SOUL Magazine co-founder who reshaped Black music journalism.

• Meta Take One – a gripping, black-and-white psychological thriller about the moral spiral of an obsessive filmmaker.

• Outdoor School – a heartfelt true story of a boy in 1990s Portland discovering healing and purpose in an outdoor education program.

• Can You Stand the Rain – a warm drama about friendship, grief, complicated pasts, and emotional renewal.

National Access
The ADIFF Mini Virtual Festival
Available November 28 – December 14

For audiences outside New York, the Mini Virtual Festival offers a curated selection of 20 titles available for streaming in the U.S. and Canada. The virtual pass ($50) includes documentaries such as Breaking Boundaries, Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know, and Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work.

Education at the Core: The ADIFF School Program

This year’s School Program includes films selected to inspire young audiences and encourage classroom conversation, including:

• Ruby Bridges, dir. Euzhan Palcy
• The Great Debaters, dir. Denzel Washington
• Breaking Boundaries, dir. Dina Burlis

ADIFF continues to work with educators and community organizations to make culturally relevant cinema accessible to students across New York City.

About ADIFF

Founded in 1993 in Harlem, ADIFF is a minority-led non-profit dedicated to expanding the understanding of the human experience of people of color worldwide through cinema. The festival features films from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, and North America, offering nuanced perspectives seldom seen in mainstream distribution.

Tickets & Passes

• In-person festival passes and single tickets
• Virtual Pass (U.S. & Canada): $50
• Ticketing and full schedule available at: www.NYADIFF.org

Indigenous Voices in ADIFF 2025

Discover First Nation voices with several Indigenous films as part of ADIFF NYC 2025, taking place November 28 – December 14, 2025, across New York City and online.

ADIFF is presenting powerful stories by and about Indigenous communities from North and South America and the Pacific. The films explore themes of land, identity, healing, and cultural continuity.

🌟 Premieres & Highlights

🎬 Matimekush (Canada, 2025, dir. Guillaume Sylvestre) — U.S. Premiere
Screening: Wednesday, Dec 3 – 6:00 PM, The Chapel (Teachers College, Columbia University)
A deeply moving documentary set in Northern Quebec, where Innu students and recently arrived African and Caribbean immigrant teachers forge unexpected bonds through shared histories of colonization, resilience, and belonging.

🎬 The Haka Party Incident (New Zealand/Aotearoa, 2024, dir. Katie Wolfe) — New York Premiere
Screening: Tuesday, Dec 9 – 7:30 PM, Cinema Village
A riveting documentary revisiting a 1979 act of Māori resistance, when activists stopped a racist mock haka at the University of Auckland—an event that transformed New Zealand’s race relations.

We are also bringing back great films presented in ADIFF in previous years:

🎬 Loimata, The Sweetest Tears (New Zealand/Aotearoa, 2020, dir. Anna Marbrook)
Screening: Wednesday, Dec 10 – 1:30 PM, Cinema Village + Online (Mini Virtual Festival)
A profoundly emotional portrait of Māori leader and ocean voyager Lilo Ema Siope, who returns home after years in exile to heal her family’s intergenerational trauma and reclaim ancestral strength.

🎬 Kuessipan (Canada, 2019, dir. Myriam Verreault, co-written with Naomi Fontaine)
Screening: Monday, Dec 8 – 12:40 PM, Cinema Village
Set in the Innu community of Uashat-Maliotenam, this award-winning coming-of-age drama follows two best friends whose lives diverge as one dreams beyond the reserve while the other remains rooted in tradition.

🎬 Rosa Chumbe (Peru, 2015, dir. Jonatan Relayze Chiang)
Screening: Monday, Dec 8 – 3:00 PM, Cinema Village
A powerful drama about redemption and faith, centered on an Indigenous grandmother in Lima who finds spiritual renewal while caring for her abandoned grandson.

🌴 ADIFF NYC 2025: Mapping the Caribbean – Myth, Memory, and the Sound of Freedom

Get ready to sail into the extraordinary world of Caribbean cinema! The 33rd African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF NYC 2025) is proud to present a captivating selection of films that redefine the region not as a tourist backdrop, but as a birthplace of radical thought, stunning art, and unbreakable resilience.

This year's program moves from Curaçao's mythical shores to the political streets of Guyana and the healing kitchens of Haiti, showing how the Caribbean consciousness—and its sound of freedom—persists across islands and diasporas.

A Poetic Conversation: Four Windows into the Caribbean Soul

Our selection is organized into four powerful thematic clusters, each offering a unique lens on the region’s profound and complex relationship with history, identity, and art.

🎨 1. The Felix de Rooy Circle & Colonial Memory

This section explores cinematic mythmaking rooted in Afro-Caribbean spirituality and colonial critique, anchored by the legacy of Curaçaoan visionary Felix de Rooy.

Don't miss Almacita, Soul of Desolato (Dir. Felix de Rooy, Curaçao)—a mythic allegory. Be sure to attend the screening of the documentary portrait Nomad in No Man’s Land (Dir. Hester Jonkhout, NL/Curaçao) and the accompanying panel discussion focused on the artist, Felix de Rooy.

We are also proud to include the Danish film Empire (Dir. Frederikke Aspöck, Denmark), set in St. Croix, the Danish West Indies, 1848. This historical drama explores the complex and painful dynamics of race and class among women of color when Anna, a free woman, owns her close friend, the enslaved Petrine, just as rumors of rebellion begin to swirl. It's a critical look at the systems of power that fractured community.

Also featuring: Ava & Gabriel: A Love Story (Dir. Felix de Rooy, Curaçao) and Kasita (Another Building #3) (Dir. Gabri Christa, Curaçao/Netherlands).

🌴 2. Islands of Women, Heritage & Healing

These films showcase a distinctly Caribbean feminist sensibility—stories of women confronting history, community, and inherited trauma through ritual, art, and medicine. We spotlight Love Offside (Dir. Dale S. Lewis, Jamaica), a refreshing Jamaican sports romance that firmly celebrates women’s strength and cultural healing rooted in local life. The women in these films are the keepers of collective memory.

Also featuring: She Island (Dir. Raven Irabor & Sira Marissa Lewis, Trinidad & Tobago / USA), Mother Suriname – Mama Sranan (Dir. Tessa Leuwsha, Suriname), and Sugar Island (Dir. Johanné Gómez Terrero, Dominican Republic).

🕊️ 3. Revolution & Intellectual Resistance

The Caribbean is an ideological birthplace, producing thinkers who shaped global decolonization. This cluster features films that articulate the region’s global political voice, from Frantz Fanon to Walter Rodney. See Closing Night film Fanon (Dir. Jean-Claude Barny, Guadeloupe/Trinidad), which dramatizes Frantz Fanon’s radicalization in 1950s Algeria, and Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know (Dir. Arlen Harris & Daniyal Harris-Vajda, UK/Guyana), which investigates the political assassination and enduring legacy of the Guyanese scholar.

Also featured in the Pan-African Legacies – Fanon & Malcolm X program: Frantz Fanon: His Life, His Struggle, His Work (Dir. Cheikh Djemaï, Algeria/Martinique).

🌎 4. Caribbean Diaspora & Transnational Resonance

In this section, we trace how home travels. Caribbean consciousness is not fixed but portable, adapting and thriving across borders. We highlight Village Keeper (Dir. Karen Chapman, Canada), an intergenerational Jamaican-Canadian family drama that anchors Black Canadian cinema in Caribbean motherhood and memory. We also include The Last Meal (Dir. Maryse Legagneur, Haiti) because it brilliantly uses a Haitian return narrative—where ancestral food becomes a sensory portal between continents and versions of self.

Also featuring: Nomad in No Man’s Land (Dir. Hester Jonkhout, Curaçao Curaçao / Netherlands), The Story of Lovers Rock (Dir. Menelik Shabazz, UK) and Blacks Britannica (Dir. David Koff, UK)

The Caribbean selection at ADIFF NYC 2025 affirms that the region is a living archive of emotion and resilience, one where memory, art, and politics meet in a potent dance.

Ready to explore the full lineup?

👉 Check the full schedule and grab your tickets here: adiffnyc.eventive.org/schedule

We can't wait to see you at the festival!

From Cape Town to Cairo: Reclaiming the Narrative at ADIFF NYC 2025

The African Cinema program at ADIFF NYC 2025 celebrates history, courage, and freedom — from Cape Town to Cairo.

We are absolutely thrilled to announce the spectacular lineup for the African Cinema program at the 33rd African Diaspora International Film Festival (ADIFF NYC 2025)!

More than just a collection of movies, this year’s program is a powerful chorus of voices spanning Burkina Faso, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, and beyond. It is a cinematic journey that moves through time—confronting histories that were buried, capturing the vibrant pulse of the present, and bravely imagining a future defined by freedom.

A Continent Speaking for Itself: Four Chapters of Vision

Every film in this selection affirms a single, undeniable truth: Africa is not a story told by others; it is a continent speaking for itself. Our program is structured around four powerful themes, each highlighting a must-see film that embodies its spirit:

🕊️ 1. History & Memory: Reclaiming What Was Taken

Memory is not just looking back—it's an act of resistance. This section gives voice to erased histories and movements that shaped the continent. We are incredibly proud to feature Mother City (Dir. Miki Redling, South Africa), a gripping chronicle of the "Reclaim the City" movement in Cape Town. It shows how activists are fighting to reverse the spatial injustice of apartheid and turn the battle for housing into a powerful fight for dignity and place.

Also featuring: The Song of the Rifles (Burkina Faso), Abo Zabal 89 (Egypt), Mora is Here (Morocco/France), The Eyes of Ghana (Ghana), and Yambo Ouologuem: Bound to Violence (Mali/Senegal/France).

🌍 2. Contemporary Africa: Self-Determined, Complex, and Alive

Today’s Africa is young, creative, and in constant motion. Our centerpiece, the Gala Presentation of The Ants (Les Fourmis) (Dir. Yassine Fennane, Morocco), captures this complexity brilliantly. This bold film interweaves three lives at the Morocco–Spain border—a migrant, a recruiter, and a privileged woman—creating a moving and human reflection on migration, class, and moral reckoning. It is a story of an Africa redefining itself from within.

Also featuring: Carissa (South Africa), Diya (The Price of Blood) (Chad), Black Women and Sex (South Africa), and Megnot (Ethiopia).

⚡ 3. Cinema & Censorship: When Truth-Telling is a Revolution

For many, cinema remains a vital frontier of free expression. This section celebrates filmmakers whose courage turned the act of storytelling into defiance. Don't miss The Cairo Conspiracy (Boy from Heaven) (Dir. Tarik Saleh, Egypt/Sweden), a film banned in Egypt for exposing the deep, secretive collusion between the state and religious authorities. It is a chilling, high-stakes reminder that telling the truth is always an act of courage.

Also featuring: Foreign Body (Tunisia/France) and Sins of the Flesh (Egypt).

🏫 4. School Program: Learning to See Ourselves as Heroes

We believe that storytelling is one of Africa’s most powerful tools of transformation for the next generation. This section connects modern perseverance with classic folklore. We lead with The Wall Street Boy (Kipkemboi) (Dir. Charles Uwagbai, Kenya/Canada), a story of contemporary determination and community. It is paired with the beloved animated classic, Kirikou and the Sorceress (Dir. Michel Ocelot, Senegal/France), showing how a tiny hero uses wisdom and self-belief to save his village.

From the archival to the futuristic, from silence to song, we invite you to experience the sheer resilience, creativity, and unstoppable energy of the African continent.

Ready to explore the full lineup?

👉 Check the full schedule and grab your tickets here: adiffnyc.eventive.org/schedule

We can't wait to share this incredible journey with you!

Edit Site Footer