African filmmakers have a new international platform to pitch for, with Alternativa Film Festival opening submissions for its 2027 edition, which will take place in Africa for the first time. Announced at MIP Africa in Cape Town on October 29, the fourth edition of the Global South-focused festival is offering $120,000 (approximately KSh15.5 million) in prize money across seven award categories.
Of this amount, $40,000 (approximately KSh5.2 million) is reserved for African filmmakers through a $20,000 Focus Award and two Short Film Awards worth $10,000 each. African entries will also be eligible for the festival’s other awards. The festival is accepting feature films from Africa, Asia and Latin America, while short film submissions are exclusively open to African filmmakers, reflecting the continent’s position as the focus region for the 2027 edition. Eligible films must have been completed after January 1, 2026. Submissions are free and close on March 1, 2027.
For filmmakers working across Africa’s increasingly visible but commercially challenging independent film landscape, the opportunity extends beyond the prospect of winning prize money. Directors whose films make the Competition selection will be invited to attend the festival and awards ceremony, with Alternativa covering their travel and accommodation. The host country, city and exact dates are yet to be announced, although the festival is scheduled for late 2027.
Beyond the red carpet: Building pathways for African cinema
Alternativa’s African expansion comes against the backdrop of persistent challenges facing filmmakers from the Global South, particularly around international distribution, financing and access to audiences beyond their domestic markets. The initiative, founded by inDrive founder and chief executive Arsen Tomsky, positions itself around impact-driven cinema and stories that challenge social inequalities and broaden representation.
Its ambitions extend beyond the traditional festival circuit. Earlier in 2026, the organisation launched Alternativa Distribution, a non-profit distribution label designed to improve the commercial and international reach of films from the Global South. The model offers filmmakers an upfront minimum guarantee for non-theatrical rights, covers subtitling and dubbing costs, and shares revenue after recovering direct distribution expenses. Proceeds are reinvested in filmmakers and local film industries.
“Exceptional filmmaking can come from anywhere, but access to international audiences is still hindered by a deeply unequal system,” says Tomsky. “Alternativa Distribution was created to challenge that imbalance.” The distribution catalogue includes Nepal’s Elephants in the Fog, which received the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, and No Good Men, Afghanistan’s contribution that opened the 2026 Berlinale.
Other titles include Malaysia’s Lost Land, which received the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, and Tunisia’s Four Daughters, a 2024 Academy Awards nominee. Films selected for the 2027 festival may also be considered for the distribution catalogue, potentially extending their lifespan beyond festival screenings.
For African filmmakers, this presents another dimension to the opportunity: international visibility coupled with a possible route into wider distribution networks.
A growing international platform
Alternativa operates as a nomadic festival, moving to a different region with each edition. Its journey began in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2023, before moving to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2024, and Medellín, Colombia, in 2026. The Medellín edition attracted 11,000 attendees, received 1,831 submissions from 55 countries, hosted 107 international guests and brought together more than 60 partners, making it the festival’s largest edition to date.
For its African debut, the organisers are looking to build on that momentum while expanding the professional opportunities available to filmmakers. “With each edition, Alternativa Film Festival grows,” says Liza Surganova, Head of Alternativa. “Not only in reach and scale, but also in the connections it creates and the opportunities it opens up for filmmakers.”
The 2027 programme will feature public screenings, discussions and other events exploring the social issues presented in selected films. It will also include Industry Days, a professional programme bringing together filmmakers, producers, industry experts and social impact leaders from across the Global South. The programme is intended to create opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange and industry networking.
Malaysian producer Elise Shick, whose film Lost Land won the Nativa Award at Alternativa 2026, described the festival as a platform for building lasting creative relationships.
“We’ve built a family here at the festival,” she said, revealing that a co-production project involving nine countries had already emerged from connections made through the initiative.
How African filmmakers can apply
Alternativa Film Festival welcomes fiction, documentary, animation and hybrid films across all genres. Feature film submissions are open to eligible filmmakers from Africa, Asia and Latin America, while short film entries are restricted to African filmmakers. All films must have been completed after January 1, 2026. The submission process is free, with entries closing on March 1, 2027.
Filmmakers can review the eligibility requirements, participating countries and award categories through the official Alternativa Film Festival submission portal.
As the festival prepares to make its African debut, its proposition is about more than bringing international cinema to a new destination. It is also an opportunity to strengthen the connections between African filmmaking, global audiences and the business of getting independent stories seen.
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