Kaduna International Film Festival (KADIFF), has released the list of films selected for official screening at the festival this year.

The list, comes three months to the festival dated August 26 – 30, and also includes 2025 film nominees battling it out for the ‘Best’ award in the various genres/categories of submission – Features, Shorts, Animation, Documentary, Experimental, Indigenous and Student Films, as well as the Best Actor, Actress, Director, Cinematography categories.

Official selection for Short Films category are five Nigerian films: Senate George Ewah’s ‘The Boy In White’, Ive Ann Emecho’s ‘Hey Stranger’, Ali Mustapha’s ‘A Battered Life’, Otatane-Oso 2’s ‘Don’t Bite That Apple’, Tolulope Odebunmi’s ‘Bottled Up’ and Tony Okwo’s ‘Holocaust’. Others include ‘In Three Layers’ (Tunisia), ‘Seas The Day’ (Kenya), ‘Hurry Up Hurry Up’ (Mayotte), ‘Black Tide’ & ‘Torn Ball’ (Reunion), ‘The Old Days’ (France).

Feature selections include eleven Nigerian films – Marc Adebesin’s ‘Unknown Soja’, Tissy Nnachi’s ‘Duty,’ Steve Ayeny’s ‘Offshoot’, John Njamah’s ‘Kisum’, Kemi Adekomi’s ‘Unleashed’, Igunwe Otaniyuwa’s ‘Season of Love’, Reng and Bello’s ‘Taqdeer’ (Devine Decree), Richard Iboyi’s ‘Goodbye Celine’, Patience Imobhio’s ‘Ivie’, Johnson Erakpotobor’s ‘Zara’, and Juliet Ibrahim’s ‘Healing The Inner Child’. Eleven Ugandan films were also to screen at the festival. They are: Frederick Achura’s ‘Fatal’, Charles Tyaba’s ‘Where Is The Head’, Siraje Serunjogi’s ‘The Concubine’, Ashiraf Mulima’s ‘Born In The Shadows’, Ayeny Steve’s ‘Roses’, Hosea Adroa’s ‘At The Crossroads’, Zzizinga Nsimbe’s ‘Angry Husband’, Denis Dhikusooka’s ‘Battle For Earth’, Ssekandi Jimmy’s ‘Retaliation’, and Paul Ssebata’s ‘Speak’. There are also Kismet (Cameroon), Valeriy Pereverzev’s ‘The Brattt’ (Russia), Mhlengi Khumalo’s ‘Axiomatic Truth’ (South Africa), and Paul Wilo’s ‘Service To The Heart’ (Zambia).

Four films from Nigeria Senate Ewa’s ‘Dear Hauwa’, Uganda – Ssentongo Sinani’s ‘Penat’ & Ayeny Steve’s ‘The Real General’, and United States – Kendrick Mclin’s ‘Bad Day: Good Man Gone Bad’ made for the Experimental selection.

Uganda led the animation screening selection with nine films – Kiberu Siraje’s ‘Stuck In The Nest’ and ‘Nkizzi’s First Day’, Mansoor Mubiru’s ‘Heights’, Ashiraf Mulima’s ‘Booze’, Denis Dhikusooka’s ‘Kataleya’, ‘Kintu’, ‘Mission Xylara’, and ‘Vengeance’; with single selections each from the US – Shayma Aziz’s ‘Between Land & Sky’, and ‘Dharamdeep Randev’s Chadni Ki Baatein: Ek Ankahee Prem Kahani’ (India).
Nigeria tops the Student Films official film selection – with Lewis Oguche’s ‘Black Race’, Joy Amwe-Bulus’ ‘Rhythm’, Gilbert Owan’s ‘Zara’, and Senate Ewah’s ‘Boko Halal’ (Education Is A Gift); followed by Uganda with Brian Kabogozza’s ‘Dinner For Three’ & ‘My Background’.

Five Nigerian films made the Indigenous film selection category. They are: Salisu Muazu Jos’s ‘Asalina’, Adebayo, Adebayo and Tijani’s ‘Seven Doors’, Zaharaddeen Kwangila’s ‘Coloured Marriage’, Dan Hausa’s ‘Tataburza’, and Toka McBaror’s ‘Kakanda’. Ugandan indigenous film for screening include Ronald Kyomuhendo’s ‘Mysteries of Love’, Ediegu Innocent’s ‘Lama’, Blace and Enyegu’s Olwatuuka, and Mulindwa Richard’s ‘Half Life’.

Seven Nigerian films occupy the Documentaries screening selection like Senate Ewah’s ‘Days of Rage’, Usaka Wammanda’s ‘St Bartholomew’s Anglican Church 1929 – 2023: A Doctoral Thesis On Virtual Reality (VR) Documentary Production’, Ijeoma Richards’ ‘Uru Igba-Boi’, Adetola Adebowale’s ‘The Urban Hustle Documentary’, Precious Iroagalachi’s ‘Iwa Ji: A Celebration of the Igbo Culture’, Chinda Michael’s ‘Ogbodueni’ (Call of the Spirits) and David Michael’s ‘Seeds of the Future’. Joining this category of screening Kennedy Kihire’s ‘Myel Rwot’, Hosea Adroa’s ‘Finding God: The Rwenzori Adventure’, Siraje Sselunjoji’s ‘A Woman’s Heart’, and Ssekandi Jimmy’s ‘The Shadow Pandemic’ all from Uganda. International submissions screenings include Virpi Suutari’s ‘Once Upon A Time In A Forest’ (Finland), ‘Happy People’ (Russia), Sonny Mugambi’s ‘Round One’ (Kenya), Amyn Khan’s ‘Timeless Grace’ (Kenya), Rashid Hunt’s ‘Seas The Day’ (Kenya), and Cyrill Noyalet’s ‘Babalawo’ (France).
Rounding off the official selection is the Series screening category with three Ugandan series – ‘Tying The Knot’ (Kennedy Kihire), ‘Hotel Mara’ and ‘Crossroads’ by Ayeny Steve; and Adekunle Salawu’s ‘Eli’s Lodge’ (Nigeria).

Conclusively Nigeria and Uganda are going neck-in-neck in submissions and race for the awards. No surprise there, since the latter’s appearance in the festival three years ago. The tie is being cemented by a recent MoU between KADIFF and Uganda’s Pearl International Film Festival.

However, a few questions arise such as to the limited amount of submission a person can make per category, as seen in Denis Dhikusooka’s four nominations in the Animation category; in addition to what makes for a Student Film category, when submittants like Ewah (who is highly unlikely to be a student) make this category among other three categories.