11.5.2026
Up and coming Nigerian filmmakers Arie and Chuko Erisi will have the chance to showcase their craft at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, which begins Tuesday in Paris, France.
Their film “Clarissa” has been chosen as one of the 19 flicks that will be presented at the Directors’ Fortnight a side event of the Cannes Film Festival. The Esiri brothers are the only African filmmakers featuring at the sidebar.
Clarissa is an adaptation of the Virginia Woolf 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway, and it stars Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri and Nikki Amuka-Bird.
Meanwhile the final selections of films for the main event will feature three African films, all part of the Un Certain Regard section.
Festivalgoers will be able to enjoy “Ben’imana,” the first feature film by Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo. Co-produced between Rwanda, Gabon and Ivory Coast, the movie tackles community-led trials for justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide.
Congolese director Rafiki Fariala will present”Congo Boy,” the story of a young aspiring musician whose family fled the Democratic Republic of Congo, and who is now struggling to achieve his dreams in the Central African Republic.
French-Moroccan filmmaker Laïla Marrakchi returns to Cannes with “La más dulce” or “Strawberries.” The film follows two young women who leave their native Morocco to work as seasonal labourers picking strawberries in Southern Spain. With agency reports