The Austin Film Society Announces the Fourth Annual Presentation of the Pan African Film Festival in Texas
June 25, 2026, AUSTIN, TX— From July 30 to August 2, the Austin Film Society will present its fourth annual Austin film series with the Los Angeles-based Pan African Film Festival (PAFF), with programming curated especially for Austin audiences.
PAFF, the nation’s largest and longest-running global Black film festival, celebrates Black stories from around the world through film. PAFF will feature a robust slate of screenings, including narratives, documentaries, shorts, and animations, with 10 Texas premieres. The opening-night film, Muganga, The One Who Treats, tells the true story of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege, who treats survivors of wartime sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The film will be followed by a reception in the lobby of AFS Cinema with complimentary light bites. The program’s 2026 closing-night selection will be Montmartre, a romance-drama that follows Jo (Ito Aghayere), a woman dissatisfied with her disconnected life who takes a transformative trip to Paris. While there, she meets Toussaint (Jesse Williams), an enchanting tour guide who helps her reconnect with her long-lost passion. Other films include a 20th anniversary screening of Phat Girlz, documentaries about Toronto’s Jamaican music mecca and famed photographer Kwame Brathwaite, and the Texas premiere of the animated short Two Black Boys in Paradise.
The full festival lineup is included below. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit austinfilm.org/paff. Full festival passes are available here, and AFS members will receive additional discounts on tickets.
To watch the trailer for PAFF’s 2026 program in Austin, click here or on the image above.
PAFF is an annual, LA-based film festival that brings together creatives across the African diaspora to celebrate their work in one place. PAFF is also the largest Black film festival and Black History Month activation in the US. PAFF leadership will be in attendance at the Austin presentation, including General Manager Asantewa Olatunji, Chief Development & Strategic Partnerships Officer Linda Bronson-Abbott, Senior Programmer Melissa Randle, and Director of Special Operations J’Tasha St. Cyr, along with Executive Director Oduduwa Olatunji, to introduce the films.
On August 2 at 3 pm, PAFF will also participate in a free panel discussion at AFS Cinema called “Culture Can’t Be Automated — or Can It?: Storytelling and AI.” The panel will feature filmmakers, writers, technology professionals, and cultural critics discussing one of the most pressing creative questions of our moment. We’ll explore how AI tools are reshaping production, distribution, and authorship, and what that means specifically for Black artists who have long fought for the right to tell their own stories on their own terms. Following the panel, guests will be invited to stay for a mixer to continue the conversation from the afternoon.
More information on the PAFF panel can be found here or by visiting austinfilm.org/paff.
This project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment and a grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.
Special thanks to our Festival promotional partners: Black Auteur Film Festival, DAWA, TTorch Literary Arts, the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, Where Y’all At Though, and Alliance Française d’Austin, and Sound Unseen Austin for support of individual films.
CONFIRMED TALENT ATTENDING THE FESTIVAL AND AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS INCLUDE:
Nnegest Likké (Director of Phat Girlz)
Graeme Mathieson (Director of Play it Loud! How Toronto Got Soul)
Andrew Munger (EP/ Producer/ Writer of Play it Loud! How Toronto Got Soul)
Leon Hendrix III (Director of Montmartre)
Shorts Program:
- Abai Peace (Director of Legally Black) and Paris Shardey (EP/Writer/Star of Legally Black)
- Oliver Mack Calhoun (Director of Time Setters)
- Jared Leaf (Director of Spilled Milk)
- Charles Goubeaud (Executive Producer of The Black Bart of Taco King #17)
CONFIRMED TALENT NOT ATTENDING THE FESTIVAL BUT AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS INCLUDE:
Marie-Hélène Roux (Director of Muganga, the One Who Treats) *located in France
Cynthia Pinet (Producer of Muganga, the One Who Treats) *located in France
Jay Douglas (Artist/Subject of Play it Loud! How Toronto Got Soul) *located in Toronto
Yemi Bamiro (Director of Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story) *located in the UK
Shorts Program:
- Julius Amedume (Director of Complicated Grief) *located in UK
- Baz Sells (Director of Two Black Boys in Paradise) & Ben Jackson (Producer of Two Black Boys in Paradise) *located in UK
- Rickey Larke (Director of The Black Bart of Taco King #17)
- Ifeanyi Ezieme (Director of The Inconvenience Store), Fabiola Rodriguez (Producer of The Inconvenience Store), and Nzinga Kadalie Kemp (Writer of The Inconvenience Store) * located in Los Angeles
PAFF 2026 Programming Lineup
THURSDAY, JULY 30
Muganga, the One Who Treats
Marie-Hélène Roux, Gabon/France/Belgium, 2025, DCP, 105 min. In French, Swahili, Lingala with English subtitles.
7 PM | AFS Cinema
Denis Mukwege, a Congolese doctor and future Nobel Peace Prize laureate, treats — at the risk of his life — thousands of women who are victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His encounter with Guy Cadière, a Belgian surgeon, will breathe new life into his mission. Based on a true story and starring international actors Isaach de Bankole & Vincent Macaigne. Texas Premiere.
Followed by an opening-night reception in the AFS Cinema lobby for all attendees of the film.
FRIDAY, JULY 31
Phat Girlz (20th Anniversary)
Nnegest Likké, USA, 2006, DCP, 100 min.
6 PM | AFS Cinema
While on vacation, two besties, (“Mo’Nique and Kendra C. Johnson) struggling with body-image issues meet two rich, handsome Nigerian doctors (Jimmy Jean-Louis and comedian Godfrey) who invite them to a traditional African party where they are the belles of the ball because of their full figures. A whole new world opens up for them, culturally and romantically, changing their lives forever. This groundbreaking, glow-up film celebrates the beauty of black bodies, Nigerian culture, Afrobeats, and Pan-African love. The culturally groundbreaking, body-positive romantic-comedy turns 20, but its timeless message of self-love resonates stronger than ever today.
Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul
Graeme Mathieson, Canada/Jamaica/USA, 2025, DCP, 83 min.
9 PM | AFS Cinema
This documentary reveals how many of Jamaica’s biggest stars turned Toronto into a Jamaican music mecca. The film tells the story through the life of beloved reggae singer Jay Douglas, an O.G. still going strong 60 years after the story begins. The Jamaicans built a vibrant culture of basement studios, record stores, and house parties, recording extraordinary tracks, forgotten until an American record label discovered and released the long-lost recordings, breathing new life into their careers. Texas Premiere.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1
I Am Because We Are (Short Film Block)
Various, 2025, DCP, 112 min.
12:30 PM | AFS Cinema
A bold compilation of seven Pan-African narrative journeys of self-determination. Rooted in the intertwined principles of the African philosophy of Ubuntu: interconnectedness, compassion & empathy, respect & dignity, communal responsibility & solidarity, this mix of sci-fi, action/adventure, comedy, drama, psychological thriller, and animation, including LGBTQ+, mental health, and environmental-related issues, examines the resilience of Black bodies manifesting joy and sustainability while navigating grief, self-identity, and trauma.
- Legally Black (Episodes 1 & 2), dir. Abai Peace / USA
After her father’s death, fashion consultant Jade Black spirals into alcoholism. As her life unravels, she must choose whether to keep spiraling or reclaim her spark with humor and resilience. - Time Setters, dir. Oliver Mack Calhoun / USA
A grief-stricken inventor (Fury) and a hardened ex-Marine (Vengeance) secretly lead the Time Setters, a covert group that alters history to save lives stolen by racial violence. When idealistic historian Marvin (Justice) joins their cause, he’s thrust into his first mission: traveling to 1955 Mississippi to save Emmett Till. Due to time travel not being an exact science, they run into obstacles and race against time to accomplish their mission for their version of social justice. Texas Premiere. - Two Black Boys In Paradise, dir. Baz Sells / UK
Edan (19) and Dula (18) navigate love, identity, and self-acceptance on a journey about coming into oneself and out to the world. Confronting fear, shame, and societal expectations, the boys rediscover a sense of belonging in their own paradise, in this celebration of queer love, vulnerability, and the power of embracing who you are. Made with stop-motion animation. Texas Premiere. - The Inconvenience Store, dir. Ifeanyi Ezieme / USA
At a remote gas station in Nowheresville, California, shopkeeper Hiro, stranded traveler Tonya and gruff trucker Ron collide in a heated altercation. When an emergency broadcast warns of extraterrestrial craft overhead—and a bleeding stranger stumbles in from the street—the group must decide whether to trust the approaching beings or prepare for a fight that could alter the fate of the universe. Texas Premiere. - Complicated Grief, dir. Julius Amedume / Ghana / Switzerland / UK
A mysterious gift from beyond crosses continents to a secluded chalet, where the fate of a couple unfolds in an unexpected and unsettling way. Regional Premiere. - Spilled Milk, dir. Jared Leaf / USA
What happened to all those dads that went to the store to get milk and never came home? A father’s late-night trip to the store leads him into an encounter with a mysterious Milk Man, and things quickly go sour. Regional Premiere. - The Black Bart of Taco King # 17, dir. Rickey Larke / USA
A suave larcenist searches for a new partner at a dive bar and finds the perfect Bonnie to his Clyde. He takes her to dinner to put her to the test, yet she has all the answers… and more. Texas Premiere.
Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
Yemi Bamiro, USA, 2025, DCP, 98 min.
4 PM | AFS Cinema
Photographer to the greats, collaborator in African liberation, and archivist of Harlem, Brathwaite’s impact on Black culture is undeniable, but he was largely forgotten by history. This documentary covers the incredible surge in awareness of Kwame’s work, including being embraced by Rihanna and Beyoncé. Alicia Keys, Jesse Williams, Gabrielle Union, and Tyler Mitchell speak emotionally about championing Kwame’s work in this documentary, which finally gives “the keeper of the images” of the Black is Beautiful movement his moment to shine. Texas Premiere.
Montmartre
Leon Hendrix III, USA/France, 2025, DCP, 103 min. In French and English with English subtitles.
7:30 PM | AFS Cinema
Disillusioned with her life, Jo visits the storied French district of Montmartre to clear her mind. There she falls for Toussaint, a tour guide with a penchant for poetry and romance. Through their curious connection, history, art and love intertwine, reconnecting Jo to her long-lost passion for life. Regional Premiere.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 2
Culture Can’t Be Automated — or Can It?: Storytelling and AI, panel discussion and mixer
3 PM | AFS Cinema
In every era of Black storytelling, from the drum to the pen, from the Harlem Renaissance to the Black Independent Film Movement, technology has adapted to its truth, not the other way around. But artificial intelligence presents a different kind of reckoning. Who gets to feed the machine? Whose stories train the algorithm? And when AI generates a narrative, a face, or a voice, whose culture is it drawing from, and who profits?
This panel brings together filmmakers, writers, tech professionals, and cultural critics to discuss the most pressing creative questions of our moment. We’ll explore how AI tools are reshaping production, distribution, and authorship, and what that means specifically for Black artists who have long fought for the right to tell their own stories on their own terms.
Are these new tools liberation or extraction? Creative expansion or culture strip mining? And in an era where an algorithm can mimic style but has never known struggle or lived cultural experiences, what does it mean to make something real?
Join us for a conversation about preservation, power, and the irreplaceable soul at the center of Black cinema. The panel will be followed by a mixer at 4 PM.
About PAFF
Established in 1992 by Hollywood veterans Danny Glover (The Color Purple, Lethal Weapon), the late Ja’Net DuBois (Good Times), and Ayuko Babu (Executive Director), the Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has remained dedicated to the promotion of Black stories and images through the exhibition of film, visual art, and other creative expression. For over 30 years, PAFF has been the international beacon for the African diaspora film and arts communities.
About Austin Film Society
Founded in 1985 by filmmaker Richard Linklater, AFS creates life-changing opportunities for filmmakers, catalyzes Austin and Texas as a creative hub, and brings the community together around great film. AFS supports filmmakers from all backgrounds towards career leaps, encouraging exceptional artistic projects with grants and support services. AFS operates Austin Studios, a 20-acre production facility, to attract and grow the creative media ecosystem. Austin Public, a space for our city’s diverse mediamakers to train and collaborate, provides many points of access to filmmaking and film careers. The AFS Cinema is an ambitiously programmed repertory and first run arthouse with broad community engagement. By hosting premieres, local and international industry events, and the Texas Film Awards, AFS shines the national spotlight on Texas filmmakers while connecting Austin and Texas to the wider film community. AFS is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. More at austinfilm.org.
Maury Sullivan
maury@austinfilm.org
