Submissions have been opened for the first African edition of the Alternativa Film Festival, with organisers announcing that the 2027 event will welcome feature-length films from Africa, Asia and Latin America, while reserving its short film category for African filmmakers.
The announcement was made at MIP Africa as the Global South film showcase, founded and backed by inDrive, entered its fourth edition.
To qualify, all films must have been completed after January 1, 2026.
The festival will offer a total prize pool of more than 164 million naira, equivalent to 120,000 dollars, across seven awards.
Three awards are specifically reserved for African filmmakers: the 20,000-dollar Focus Award and two 10,000-dollar Short Film Awards. African entrants will also remain eligible for the other prizes.
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Directors whose films make the Competition selection will receive return flights to the festival and accommodation at the organisers’ expense.
The event is scheduled for late 2027, although the host country, city and exact dates are yet to be announced.
Entries close on March 1, 2027, and filmmakers can submit their works free of charge through the Alternativa website.
The festival showcases impact-driven cinema from the Global South, a region that accounts for about five in every six people globally but remains under-represented on screen.
Earlier in 2026, Alternativa launched its distribution arm, which operates on a fair, non-profit basis, reinvesting in filmmakers and their local industries.
The distribution label offers an upfront minimum guarantee for non-theatrical rights, covers subtitling and dubbing costs, and shares revenue after recovering direct distribution expenses.
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of inDrive, the global mobility company behind Alternativa, Arsen Tomsky, said the initiative was designed to address inequalities in access to international audiences.
“Exceptional filmmaking can come from anywhere, but access to international audiences is still hindered by a deeply unequal system. Alternativa Distribution was created to challenge that imbalance,” he said.
The distribution catalogue includes Nepal’s 2027 Oscar entry, Elephants in the Fog, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Other titles include Afghanistan’s No Good Men, the opening film at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival; Malaysia’s Lost Land, winner of the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize at the 2025 Venice Film Festival; and Tunisia’s 2024 Oscar nominee, Four Daughters.
Five other films from previous Alternativa editions are also included in the catalogue, while films selected for the 2027 festival may be considered for distribution.
The Head of Alternativa, Liza Surganova, said the festival had continued to expand its reach and create opportunities for filmmakers with each edition.
“With each edition, Alternativa Film Festival grows. Not only in reach and scale, but also in the connections it creates and the opportunities it opens up for filmmakers. As we prepare to bring the festival to Africa for the first time, we want to build on everything we’ve achieved so far, making this edition our biggest and boldest yet while introducing new initiatives for our community.
“Africa is home to an extraordinary diversity of cultures, perspectives and cinematic voices, and we believe this new chapter will deepen our understanding of what transformative cinema can be and help us forge valuable new connections. We invite filmmakers from across Africa, Asia and Latin America to join us on this journey and share their visions with us,” she said.
Alternativa moves to a different region for each edition. It began in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in 2023, moved to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, in 2024, and held its 2026 edition in Medellín, Colombia.
The Medellín edition was the festival’s largest so far, attracting 11,000 attendees and receiving 1,831 submissions from 55 countries. It also hosted 107 international guests and more than 60 partners.
The 2027 programme will feature public screenings, discussions and other events designed to encourage dialogue on the social issues explored in the films.
It will conclude with an awards ceremony recognising films that combine artistic excellence with the potential to drive meaningful social change.
The festival will also host Industry Days, a professional programme bringing together filmmakers, producers, industry specialists and social impact leaders from across the Global South.
The Nation
