The films in the 2013 festival aimed to reveal new images of Africa – wealthy, global and dynamic. They also went beneath the surface of headlines to expose deeper narratives and tell stories of ordinary and extraordinary life in the continent. These wonderfully moving dramas, captured by Africa’s filmmakers, are creating a phenomenal new wave of African cinema, which we at the RAS are very proud to support. 

Over our first few years, the RAS expanded its programmes to highlight and promote the best of Africa’s creativity and cultural production. After only three years, Film Africa became the UK’s biggest annual festival of African cinema. At the heart of the festival’s success is our focus on choosing the very best films and engaging the most dynamic, relevant and innovative filmmakers in Africa and the Diaspora.
The wide-ranging programme brought together the best in film from across the continent, blending the contemporary and the classic; fiction and documentary. There are films of revolution, civil war, and shifting power struggles (including Kibinge’s Something Necessary and the astonishing documentary Babylon by a trio of first-time helmers from Tunisia.) As Egypt continues to endure tumult, director Halmy Nouh’s evocative short Paper Boat (made between the revolution that ousted Mubarak and the election that followed) asks, poignantly, “what’s next?”