The FAME Shorts Film Festival is back in Cape Town this September, and the line-up has just dropped.
Running from 4 to 6 September at the Labia Theatre, the 2025 edition brings together 31 bold, brilliant, and sometimes completely unhinged short films from across the continent and diaspora. The programme is loud about its themes: defiance, belonging, grief, intimacy, and not shy to throw you into the deep end.
If you’re into tight storytelling that punches hard in under 20 minutes, this one’s for you.
Each night is open to the public, with the official Awards Night happening on 3 September. The rest of the screenings run from the 4th to the 6th, with tickets already on sale via Quicket.
The films are curated into four themed blocks: Here for the Underdog!, Night Terrors, In Family We Trust and Tender Riot. The festival is also a space to discover new directors, new aesthetics and new African perspectives, all in bite-sized form. Below are just a few titles that already have us circling the screening schedule.
HERE FOR THE UNDERDOG!
Stories about fighters, misfits and quiet disruptors.
In Being You, a woman literally confronts her 16-year-old self to rewrite her future.
Counterpunch throws an ex-boxing champ into one last (animated) round.
Her Khaltsha puts young women on bikes, reclaiming Khayelitsha’s streets with style and power.
Also in the mix: Rearview (tense, fast, gripping), Blue Heart (on migration and identity), King George (charming and sharp), The Last Ranger (about legacy and loss), and Ya Hanouni (a bedtime ritual packed with feeling).
NIGHT TERRORS
Dream logic, myth, horror and the haunted.
Belinda is a horror-comedy set in a hotel room that does not want to be booked.
Ecstatic Exit turns a romantic connection into a sci-fi escape route.
In Mrs Willow, ancestral spirits haunt the mountains of Zimbabwe. Wormwood, Jimbi, Awake, Mango and Why the Cattle Waits dive deep into memory, myth and transformation – unsettling and unforgettable.
IN FAMILY WE TRUST
Messy, funny, heartbreaking stories about kin.
In B(l)ind the Sacrifice, ancient ritual meets modern resistance.
Discarded follows a Joburg recycler trying to keep dignity intact.
Jelly looks at childhood and big emotions.
V’s Secret goes full chaos after a G-string goes missing.
You’ll also find Float, a quiet piece on sisterhood by the pool, Gifts from Babylon on migration scars, Pal (yes, you’ll cry), and Punter, where a boy learns the hard truth about his father.
TENDER RIOT
Softness as power. Queerness. Rage wrapped in beauty.
Blind Spots gives us a queer love story full of emotional tension.
New York Day Women is a poetic ode to immigrant motherhood.
Rainbow Girls returns to a queer pageant in Khayelitsha to ask: what’s changed?
The Passage is one of the hardest watches and maybe most important, while Onthou vi Fredo? mourns and honours a drag performer lost to violence.
Pavilhão gets into the rhythm of Afro-Brazilian samba, and The Incredible Sensational Fiancée of Sèyí Àjàyí sends the festival out with a retro-futurist bang of political satire, gender-bending drama and pure visual chaos.
Whether you’re into horror, love stories, family drama or experimental chaos, FAME Shorts is the place to catch new voices shaping the future of African film.
The festival is presented in partnership with The Labia Theatre, The Refinery, and SANCCOB, the latter bringing attention to the endangered African penguin. Because why not mix cinema with conservation?
🎟️ FAME Shorts Film Festival runs from 4 to 6 September in Cape Town. Awards Night is on the 3rd. Tickets are available now on Quicket. You can check out the full screening list at fameshortsfilmfestival.com/screenings.
