In a historic milestone for the African cinematic landscape, seven leading women-focused advocacy organizations have joined forces to champion gender parity across the continent’s film festivals.

The groundbreaking initiative, named REEL BALANCE, was officially launched on October 10 at the Durban FilmMart (DFM). Initiated by The Ladima Foundation in co-founding partnership with DFM, the campaign unites a powerful coalition of industry partners:
  • Rawiyat SIF (Sisters in Film)
  • Sisters Working in Film & Television (SWIFT)
  • Womxn Activating Transformation Africa (WATA)
  • Girls in Film SA
  • African Female Filmmakers Collective (AFFC)
  • African Women in Animation
Together, this coalition is constructively engaging with more than 50 film festivals across Africa to secure formal commitments for enhanced female representation, both on screen and behind the scenes.
The initiative was spurred by informal research conducted by The Ladima Foundation in early 2026 across 12 African film festivals. The findings highlighted two major challenges:
  1. A critical lack of accessible data, making it extremely difficult to track, measure, and analyze gender metrics within festival programming.
  2. A severe underrepresentation of films directed and produced by women, particularly African women, on festival lineups.
REEL BALANCE directly addresses both issues by asking film festivals to sign a formal pledge. Participating festivals commit to striving for 50/50 gender representation across several key operational areas:
  • Film Selection: Directors and producers of submitted and selected works.
  • Leadership & Governance: Festival management teams and jury panels.
  • Industry Engagement: Panelists, speakers, and workshop participants.
In addition, signatory festivals agree to collect and share data regarding female submission numbers and final selections. This data will be compiled, benchmarked, and reported annually to establish best practices and track long-term progress.
To support participating events, the eight partner organizations will tap into their extensive regional networks, actively promoting signatory festivals and encouraging women filmmakers to submit their projects, thereby building a robust talent pipeline.

19 festivals take the pledge

Nineteen film festivals have already signed the REEL BALANCE pledge.
Festival Name Region / Country Website
Kitale Film Week Kenya kitalefilmweek.org
Juiced Short Film Festival Kenya filmfreeway.com
Kilifi Creek Festival Kenya kilificreekfestival.com
Bantu Film Festival Botswana filmfreeway.com
Mashariki African Film Festival Rwanda masharikifestival.org
Ethiopian International Film Festival Ethiopia facebook.com/ethioiff
Animatex Animation Festival Egypt animatex.net
Luxor African Film Festival Egypt luxorafricanfilmfestival.com
Fak’ugesi Festival South Africa fakugesi.co.za
AVIJOZI South Africa avijozi.com
Durban International Film Festival South Africa ccadiff.ukzn.ac.za
Joburg Film Festival South Africa joburgfilmfestival.co.za
Encounters SA International Documentary Festival South Africa encounters.co.za
FAME Week Africa South Africa fameweekafrica.com
Cameroon African Animation Film Festival (CANIMAF) Cameroon canimaf.org
FESPACO Burkina Faso fespaco.bf
Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) Zanzibar ziff.or.tz
LIFANIMA – Nigeria’s Animation Festival Nigeria lifanima.com
Festival International du film de l’océan Indien Reunion Island fifoi.re