The ninth Kaduna International Film Festival opens Tuesday with a five-day programme highlighting African cinema, cultural exchange and the role of film in expressing cultural identity.

The festival, commonly known as KADIFF, will run from Aug. 25 to 29 in Kaduna State, with “Cultural Renaissance” as the theme of its 2026 edition.

Organisers say the programme will feature film screenings, workshops, masterclasses, panel discussions, cultural activities, industry engagements and international collaborations.

This year’s competition invited entries across feature films, shorts, animation, documentaries, experimental productions, indigenous films, student films and television or streaming series. The submission period closed in April, and nominations for the 2026 edition were subsequently announced across a range of African and international productions.

The inclusion of indigenous film reflects the festival’s broader cultural focus.

Nigeria’s screen industry extends beyond the English-language productions widely associated internationally with Nollywood. Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and other Nigerian languages form part of a diverse film and television landscape in which language, dress, music, local histories and community traditions frequently shape storytelling.

Based in Kaduna, the festival also provides a platform for northern Nigerian filmmakers within the country’s wider screen industry, bringing together practitioners working across different linguistic, regional and production traditions.

KADIFF has also expanded its international cultural engagement ahead of this year’s edition.

In July, the festival partnered with the Korean Cultural Centre Nigeria for a Nigerian-Korean film screening in Abuja. The programme featured the Nigerian short film “The Bystander,” directed by Ferry Benard, alongside South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s feature “The Host.”

KADIFF is also working with the Korean Cultural Centre on a short-film contest for Nigerian filmmakers. Participants were required to incorporate an element of Korean culture into original fiction, documentary or docu-drama productions, with winning works scheduled to be screened during the Korean Film Festival in September.