The Lagos Fringe Festival has released its 2026 film programme, with short film screenings, industry sessions and a Film Night and Awards event scheduled for the ninth edition in November, as part of the wider Fringe arts and culture lineup.
The film screenings taking place from November 4-8, follow this year’s theme, “LET’S PLAY,” which centres experimentation, improvisation and participation as ways to approach questions around power, identity and community. Festival Director and Pawstudios Africa Managing Partner Kenneth Uphopho said the theme asks what happens when audiences move from being spectators to active participants.
“Play is our oldest, most radical art form,” Uphopho said. “It’s where laughter becomes strategy, and the line between stage and crowd disappears completely.”
The programme includes a Film Showcase featuring mostly Nigerian short films that focuses on emerging filmmakers, giving them opportunities to present their work, gain recognition and connect with industry professionals.
Filmmaking also features in the festival’s Creative Enterprise Programme, a series of sessions focused on the practical and business sides of working in the creative industries. Biodun Stephen will facilitate a masterclass titled “Story is Everything,” while “Directing: The Director and Actors’ Perspectives,” led by Dr Lekan Balogun, Zabesutu Rondo Mpiti-Spies and Dion Theo Van Niekerk, will examine the relationship between directors and actors.
Other Creative Enterprise sessions will cover areas such as monetising YouTube and social media, pitching and packaging for television, financing models, storytelling and directing. The sessions are designed to give creatives practical skills for developing and sustaining their work.
The wider festival programme features Women in the Arts, Centre Stage, Founders Conversation, the Festival Market, fashion, theatre, music, visual arts, workshops and social events. Women in the Arts will feature sessions focused on the contributions of women to Nigeria’s arts sector.
The festival wraps with a Film Awards night dedicated to awarding the selected films and filmmakers.
Presented in collaboration with cultural and creative partners including the British Council, J. Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture & History, Freedom Park, Women in the Arts, and Temple Productions, Lagos Fringe 2026 runs from November 3 to 8 across multiple venues in Lagos.
The official lineup of selected short films is as follows:
2 Greater Than 1
Director – Owoyemi Michael
Trapped in a miserable marriage, a woman turns to a former acquaintance with ties to the underworld and offers him one million naira to kill her wealthy, controlling husband. Desperate for money, he reluctantly accepts the dangerous deal.
A Day Called Everyday
Director – Orobosa Ikponmwen
A Day Called Everyday follows Femi, a young Nigerian man trapped in a recurring dream where a routine police stop ends with a gun pointed at him. Each time he wakes, he changes his clothes, choices and behaviour, but the outcome remains the same. As dream and reality blur, Femi confronts the limits of innocence and freedom in a society shaped by prejudice.
A Nation of Brutality
Director – Ogochukwu Umeadi
A Nation of Brutality examines how state violence became normalised in Nigeria, using the EndSARS protests as a lens to trace the country’s history of militarised governance and policing. Drawing on archival and contemporary footage, the film argues that the violence witnessed during EndSARS was not an isolated event, but part of a wider system embedded in everyday life.
Aywa
Director – Bjorn Olatunde Lawal-Solarin
Aywa approaches a village where the Goddesses and the Gods are telling the children a story of life.
Becheve
Director – Jeffrey Okwondu
Becheve follows Hans, a 10-year-old boy whose connection to his community reveals a way of life rooted in cultural heritage and environmental stewardship.
Before the Veil
Director – Ranti Femi Oyekola
On the day her future is quietly decided by her family, a 17-year-old girl pieces together fragments of overheard conversations and unsettling silences, slowly realizing that a life-changing choice is being made for her—without her knowledge or consent.
Belu Belu (United Kingdom)
Director – Mohammed Adedayo
A 16-minute documentary examining the traditional removal of the uvula by street barbers, herbalists and healers in Lagos. Through practitioners, families and health officials, the film looks at the cultural beliefs behind the practice and its medical risks, while examining the intersection of tradition, poverty and modern healthcare.
Black Sands
Director – Agatha Doowuese Akaahar
Black Sands is a haunting portrait of love, sacrifice, and survival in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. During a violent raid, two older siblings hide their younger ones inside a water drum, saving them but losing themselves. Told through silence, sound, and emotion, the film captures the fragility of peace and the quiet resilience of family in the face of chaos.
Bond of Tera (Uganda)
Director – Emma Okello
On the anniversary of a family tragedy, Wasswa is alone when a mysterious voice at his door claims to be someone he thought he had lost. As voices, memories and reality blur, the encounter forces Wasswa to face a buried truth and the consequences of a moment he cannot undo.
Caritas
Director – Joshua Ojo
Mr. Adebayo returns home after 19 years to unite with his daughter. Caritas witnessing her poor mother’s experience has been shaped by it. She enters the meeting to meet her father in person for the first time. Every words of Mr. Adebayo the father, makes her doubt the genuity of his return. Opening her heart to forgiveness becomes a difficult task that is needed for their financial liberation.
Ebun
Dorector – Lucy Oigbochie
Ebun follows Shade, a young deaf girl living in a noisy Lagos neighborhood, who experiences the city through observation, vibration and silence. Longing to hear and connect with the world around her, Shade’s journey reframes deafness as a different way of experiencing life and invites us to listen beyond sound.
Harmattan in June
Director – Blessing Peter
George suddenly falls from a celebratory mood into a deep sadness, withdrawing from everyone except his wife, Anita. As he tries to keep her inside and preserve their isolated world, Anita eventually decides to leave while his friend Richard forces his way into the apartment. Their arrival breaks George’s fragile illusion and forces him to confront.
Hear Me
Director – Denzel Oguguah
After a night out, lovers Kunle and Soroichi listen to their neighbours’ seemingly funny argument. But as the conversation hits closer to home, it sparks conflict between the couple, forcing them to question their relationship and future.
In Search Of
Dir. Rita Said
After her boyfriend, Praise, dumps her before she can end their relationship, Yasmeen refuses to accept the rejection. She drags her best friend Miracle into the forest to find a babaláwo to reverse the breakup through a ritual. But when the ritual fails, and Praise remains unmoved, Yasmeen must confront the lengths she went to protect her pride and face the rejection she was trying to avoid.
Kill or Be Killed
Director – Hubert Laolu-Kolawole
A quiet evening between two lovers turns into a fight for survival when armed intruders invade their home. Trapped and facing difficult choices, the couple must confront fear, betrayal and the limits of their trust as escape becomes increasingly uncertain.
Marked
Director – ThankGod Amah
Marked: A Documentary on Identity and Survival follows a young girl whose life is shaped by illness, poverty, family instability and a ritual marking tied to unseen forces. Moving from Taraba to Anambra and Lagos, she endures abuse and isolation before an out-of-body experience forces a confrontation with life, death and an identity shaped by survival.
Orúko (The Power of Names)
Director – Michael Ordia
This documentary travels across southwestern Nigeria to uncover the meanings and histories carried by Yoruba names. Conversations with elders, linguists, parents, priests and everyday people reveal how names preserve family lineage, spiritual beliefs, personal destiny and the circumstances of a child’s birth.
Our Side of the Bay
Dir. Mohammed Bashir Yusuf
Our Side of the Bay follows Desmond and Preye, two young friends who live in Tarkwa Bay with their families. Between the rocks, the trees and the shoreline, they fish, go to school and grow up. In their own voices, they reflect on the people who pass through: those who treat them like brothers, and those who look down on them.
Period Piece
Director – It Takes A Village Productions
Chidiebere wakes up to her first period and tries to hide it from her mother. When her stained underwear is discovered, her mother gives her a lesson on womanhood, pushing Chidiebere to confront her about always making things about herself. Initially defensive, her mother eventually listens, opening the door to a deeper conversation.
Seen
Director – Anuyimika Ayomide
Seen follows a young person waiting alone on Valentine’s Day for a date who never arrives. As comforting voices blur with reality, they are forced to confront the painful truth that the person they long to be chosen by exists only in their imagination, revealing a deeper struggle with loneliness, self-worth and the need to feel loved.
Scroll
Director – Kevwe Eru
Tia, a distracted student, races to finish a critical school project before the deadline, but constant phone notifications keep pulling her away from the task. As strange events unfold and her reality becomes increasingly distorted, her struggle to regain focus turns into a psychological battle with digital distraction.
Staged
Director – Ehis Omokheni
STAGED follows the quiet breakdown of a relationship as trust is questioned and affection begins to unravel, forcing two people to confront a truth neither is prepared to face.
The Art of Love
Director – Obed Isibor
Derin, a withdrawn artist who is mute and partially deaf, expresses himself through sketches, while his bubbly muse Lilo fills their silent sessions with energy. When a misunderstanding leaves them both hurt, Lilo secretly learns sign language to reconnect with him. Her first “Hello” opens a new door between them, showing how love can grow through understanding beyond words.
The Day They Took Our Light
Director – Adejunle Bryan Oyetunde
The Day They Took Our Light follows twin inventors Taiwo and Kenny, who work with their science teacher father to create an alternative source of light for their community. Their dream is shattered when bandits abduct Kenny, kill their father and leave their mother critically ill. Told from the family’s perspectives, the film examines the dreams and futures left behind by violence, using light as a metaphor for hope, innovation and the potential of children.
The Chain
Director – Khadeejat Alhassan
A carefully connected chain of people work together to carry out a sophisticated fraud operation. But when the consequences of the scheme reach a family desperately trying to save their mother, the line between the people behind the scam and its victims begins to disappear.
The Culprit
Director – Queen Kamba
Popular podcast host Mrs. Kashi publicly accuses the government of inflating the cost of common entrance forms and vows to hold officials accountable. When summoned by the Commissioner of Education, she demands to livestream the interrogation, only for revelations to expose corruption closer to home.
The Quiet After
Director – Ehis Omokheni
When lovers meet again, no dramatic confrontations. No grand apologies. Just the weight of what was never fully said. Now they sit in the stillness, not to fix everything in one moment, but to see if honesty feels different this time.
Through Her Lens
Director – Chiagoziem Okonkwo
Dozie, a dedicated writer, becomes so absorbed in his work that he fails to notice his wife Faith quietly putting aside her own dreams to support him. When she reveals she missed an important photography workshop, Faith confronts him about a promise they made to see the world through both her lens and his words.
The Noise Around Her Black
Director – Odaro Eguaven
After the sudden death of a husband and father, a widow and her three children navigate a burial where spectacle overshadows grief. Set against Nigerian tradition, The Noise Around Her Black explores how communal rituals can deepen a family’s isolation and obscure their quiet needs.
The Nights Were Velvet (South Africa)
Director – Jane Mpholo
As actress Jane Mpholo prepares for an intensely personal solo performance, the boundaries between rehearsal and reality begin to blur. Confronted by echoes of her past, Jane is forced to reckon with buried memories and the unresolved grief surrounding her family.
Voices In The Concrete
Director – Olanrewaju Oluwafemi
Set in Oshodi, Voices in the Concrete follows residents, volunteers and students who organize to stop the demolition of a concrete structure for a parking complex. After revoking the permit, they transform it into the “Oshodi Canopy,” a vertical park and solar-powered green space that reclaims the site for the community.
Whisper From Her Worlds
Director – Kathryn Olago
A retired therapist living in isolation strikes up an unexpected conversation with a troubled young woman outside her home. As the stranger opens up, the therapist discovers that her most important work may have been her ability to listen.
Youman
Director – Abraham Ayodele Aiwuyuse
YOUman follows three young creatives navigating life after university as they pursue their dreams while facing the uncertainty of what comes next. Their experiences explore purpose, identity and the pressure to become more, while learning to embrace who they are.
Become a patron: To support our in-depth and critical coverage—become a Patron today!
Track Upcoming Films: Keep track of upcoming films and TV shows on your Google calendar.
