Three Kenyan film festivals sign pan-African gender-parity pledge

Three Kenyan festivals, Kilifi Creek Festival, Kitale Film Week and Juiced Short Film Festival, are among 19 African film festivals that have signed Reel Balance, a pledge to work towards equal representation of women, the Ladima Foundation said. The project was launched on 10 October 2026 at the 17th Durban FilmMart in South Africa, according to the foundation and to the Kenyan news site HapaKenya, which reported on 12 October.

The Ladima Foundation initiated Reel Balance together with the Durban FilmMart. The foundation said it is engaging more than 50 African film festivals.

Signatory festivals commit to strive for 50/50 representation for films directed or produced by women. The same target applies to management and jury positions and to participants in panels and workshops at festival events, the foundation said. Festivals also agree to share data on how many women filmmakers submit films and how many are selected. HapaKenya reported that the data will be compiled and reported each year.

The project is run in partnership with Rawiyat SIF, Sisters Working in Film & Television (SWIFT), Womxn Activating Transformation Africa (WATA), Girls in Film SA, the African Female Filmmakers Collective (AFFC) and African Women in Animation, the foundation said. These partners will promote signatory festivals and encourage women filmmakers to submit work, according to HapaKenya.

The Ladima Foundation said it carried out informal research in early 2026 across 12 African film festivals. It found that "it is extremely difficult to access the data required" to examine gender representation at the festivals. It also found a significant need to increase the representation of films directed and produced by women, particularly African women.

"We understand that lasting and impactful change takes place only through collaborations and partnerships," Lara Utian, Executive Director of the Ladima Foundation, said in the foundation's announcement. "In partnership with these signatory festivals, we believe that change can and will happen," she said.

Magdalene Reddy, Director of the Durban FilmMart Institute, said in the same announcement: "Lasting change in on-screen representation begins behind the scenes, with the people who select, programme and decide." She said the FilmMart is using its platform "to open the pipeline for African women filmmakers".

The 19 signatories are in Kenya, Botswana, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Egypt, South Africa, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Zanzibar, Nigeria and Réunion Island, the Ladima Foundation said. They include the Zanzibar International Film Festival, FESPACO in Burkina Faso, the Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt, and the Durban International Film Festival and the Joburg Film Festival in South Africa.

Festivals that want to sign can write to [email protected], the contact the foundation gives for the pledge.