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The Cambridge African Film Festival was initiated
in May 2002 by a small group of graduate students at the University
of Cambridge as a way of increasing knowledge and awareness of
African and black culture in the UK, providing a way for African
filmmakers to have an audience in the UK for their films, and
as a way of offering an important counterbalance to the Western
media's almost exclusive rendering of Africa in terms of social
strife and disease. Now in its seventh year, and promising to
continue for many years to come, the Festival is an important
annual festival of contemporary African films in the UK and has
won a reputation as a high-profile and important cinematic and
educational event.
The festival began as an academic event, aimed primarily at students, and was supported by Cambridge University, Trinity College, and the Cambridge Centre for African Studies. There was an overwhelmingly positive response to the festival - both from people within academia and from outside - and this inspired the committee to continue the festival as an annual event. Thanks to the support of the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse and Trinity College, which agreed to become the festival's host venues, the second festival was held in May 2003, and featured fourteen African films and four African filmmakers in presence to lead Q&As with audiences. In 2003, the Symposium on African Cinema, an event which featured discussions between African filmmakers and film critics and which was open to the public, was initiated in conjunction with the festival. Audiences once again responded incredibly enthusiastically to the festival, remarking on the wonderful opportunity to see films from Africa which are notoriously under-distributed. Funding from Screen East and the British Council enabled the festival to grow even more in 2004, and it featured nineteen films, and brought six African filmmakers as well as African film critics, journalists, and film festival directors to Cambridge. Most importantly, the festival brought people together to discuss all aspects of African and black culture, and initiated lively debate and new understandings across cultures. In 2005, we were a partner of Africa '05, the major celebration occurring this year in the UK, and were listed as one of the major film events within this celebration. In 2006, we became a society of the University of Cambridge. In 2007, the festival collaborated with New Hall, University of Cambridge, to bring a weekend of film with a focus on the role of women in African cinema.
Past Festivals
Cambridge African Film Festival 2007
Cambridge African Film Festival 2006
Cambridge African Film Festival 2005
Cambridge African Film Festival 2004
Cambridge African Film Festival 2003
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