This years edition of the London Film Festival came to an end on Sunday evening.  2025 saw an unprecedented number of Filmmakers from the African continent showcasing their work at LFF. Feature films from Nigeria, South Africa, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya and Ghana were shown, accompanied by a dazzling array of filmmaking giants from the continent and the diaspora (including Bradley Branton, Ayo Edibiri and Indya Moore).

Read on for a brief description of the projects that caught the eye of Team Afropean:

My Father’s Shadow
Director: Akinola Davies Jr.

Akinola Davies Jr’s intimate and resplendent film (the first Nigerian film to feature in the official selection at Cannes) chronicles two brothers spending a rare day with their father in Lagos. Fola (a magnetic Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) is an enigmatic figure in his sons’ lives. As they traverse Lagos, Remi and Akin (real-life brothers Chibuike Marvellous and Godwin Egbo) begin to understand him as a person, and the sacrifices he has made for them. But as Nigeria’s presidential election results loom, events transpire that will dramatically change their relationship with him.

One Woman One Bra
Director & Screenwriter: Vincho Nchogu

Kenyan filmmaker Vincho Nchogu stuns with her humorous account of one woman’s fight to keep her ancestral land. It’s an exciting day in Sayet Village. The chief is giving out title deeds and everybody gets one, except orphan Star, who must first prove her kinship. The vultures are circling and her task seems impossible, until a potential solution reveals itself. There’s never a dull moment in Star’s quest, as she encounters catty neighbours, insidious NGOs and even potential love interests.

KHARTOUM
Directors: Ibrahim Snoopy, Rawia Alhag, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed and Anas Saeed

Part of the CREATE Strand, this has an extraordinary story behind it. It is also incredibly timely in speaking to the real life experience of Sudanese people finding themselves in the middle of a horrendous war. Five citizens of Khartoum tell their story via five filmmakers, with innovative and imaginative use of animation and staging where actual footage became impossible due to the war. This film has been on a journey since Sundance early this year, and has won numerous awards along the way.

BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
Director: Kahlil Joseph

Part of the CREATE Strand, this is a unique piece of cinematic work that reflects both narrative and documentary forms and functions in the same way as a music album with distinct tracks. BLKNWS also incorporates archival images and the work of multiple collaborators and artists exploring Black history and identity in a non-traditional structure. Filmmaker Kahlil Joseph and his collaborators (which include Raven Jackson, whose film, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, screened at the LFF IN 2023 and Garrett Bradley, whose film TIME screened at the LFF in 2020) are extremely eager to show this work in London, with its own specific cultural and historical context.

More Life
Director: Bradley Banton

Framed within the hyper-performative world of Instagram livestreaming, this is an impressive, fresh and beautifully observed debut from actor-director Bradley Banton. In his superlative hangout film, about a group of old friends who reunite to celebrate one of their own opening a gallery show in Copenhagen, Banton manages to make the formal format of the film feel fresh, and expertly handles subtle shifts in tone and dynamic. It’s a deftly performed drama, particularly by Tuwaine Barrett, who was last seen in Hard Truths. 

Dreamers
Diretor: Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor

Two Nigerian migrants dare to imagine a vibrant future outside of their confinement at a British immigration removal centre. After undocumented immigrant, Isio is discovered by British authorities, she is remanded at Hatchworth Removal Centre, where deportation looms. Nothing could have prepared her for such a gruelling environment. Fortunately, her roommate Farah is there to keep her spirits up. But what begins as a tentative friendship, blooms into something much more profound in this powerful, heartfelt and all-too-pertinent drama.

Memory of Princess Mubi
By Damien Hauser

Set in 2093, this epic follows Kuve, a young director who sets out to make a documentary about the effects of the First World War on the citizens of Umata. Kuve assembles a crew, including Mumbi, an aspiring actress, who challenges them to shoot without AI. Kuve finds himself falling for his leading lady, but Mumbi harbours a secret that could change everything.

Mortu Nega
By Flora Gomes

Chronicling the end of Guinea-Bissau’s war of independence and the first steps towards a self-determining republic, Gomes’ portrait of a young couple’s love affair sidesteps the didactic tropes that underpin some stridently political films. Astonishing war-time set pieces are interspersed with the tragedies and romances of a young nation to mesmerising effect. The result is one of the treasures of African cinema.

Restored in 2025 by the Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in collaboration with Flora Gomes. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.