The 11th Black Star International Film Festival will place Ghanaian cinema at the centre of its 2026 programme in Kumasi.

When the films for the 11th Black Star International Film Festival began coming together, something became very clear: Ghanaian films would have a strong presence this year.

That is not an accident.

It is a deliberate choice, and it speaks directly to some of the conversations we believe African cinema needs to be having right now.

For eleven years, BSIFF has been an international film festival. Films come to us from across Africa and around the world, and that remains an important part of who we are.

This year, we received submissions from 42 countries, with films from 11 countries ultimately making it into the festival.

But as BSIFF moves into its second decade, we are asking ourselves some important questions.

Who is watching African films?

Who is watching Ghanaian films?

And perhaps most importantly: how do we build a culture where our own people actively seek out, watch and pay for our stories?

It has to begin at home

We spend a lot of time talking about taking African cinema to the world.

And we should.

But there is another part of that conversation that deserves just as much attention.

Before the world watches us, can we get our own people watching us?

Africa is home to more than a billion people. Ghana itself has millions of potential viewers.

That is an audience.

So perhaps one of the biggest opportunities for African cinema is not simply somewhere outside Africa.

Perhaps it is right here.

This thinking sits at the heart of BSIFF 2026 and our theme: Film & Global Culture: The New Wave of African Cinema.

A deliberate choice

You can see that thinking reflected in this year’s programme.

Among the Ghanaian films selected are:

• Legacy Africa
• Ashes of Accra
• Love Is Death (Odo Yewu)
• King of Tema
• Sesime
• Home, Or Our Journey Is Still Long
• We Won’t Let You Poison Us
• Almost Forever
• Captain Ibrahim Traore
• The City of God Beneath the River
• The Weavers Thread
• Suluku (The Human Totem)

They sit across different sections of the festival: Ghanaian Showcase, Documentary, Africa Rising, Student Showcase, Kumawood and Special Screening.

That breadth is important.

Because there isn’t one Ghanaian cinema.

There are different filmmakers, languages, forms, generations, communities and ways of telling our stories.

And we want audiences to encounter them.

Language is part of the conversation

This is also why local-language cinema has become such an important pillar for BSIFF this year.

We have watched what has happened in other parts of the world.

Countries have built enormous screen cultures around stories told first in their own languages and rooted in their own realities.

The world did not ask them to stop being themselves before watching.

The stories travelled.

Technology, subtitles and dubbing helped them travel even further.

So why can’t we do the same?

We already know Ghanaians consume enormous amounts of content in Twi and other Ghanaian languages through television, radio and digital platforms.

The audience exists.

The question is how we build stronger bridges between that audience and Ghanaian cinema.

Why Kumasi?

This is also part of why BSIFF is going to Kumasi.

For years, much of Ghana’s formal film activity has been concentrated in Accra.

But Ghanaian cinema does not belong only to Accra.

Kumasi has played an extraordinary role in building popular Ghanaian screen culture, particularly through Kumawood and local-language storytelling.

Taking BSIFF to Kumasi is therefore not simply a change of venue.

It is part of the conversation.

What happens when we take cinema closer to the people?

What happens when filmmakers meet audiences outside the spaces where festivals traditionally happen?

What happens when we begin treating audience development as seriously as we treat film production?

We want to find out.

The film does not end when it is finished

We also want Ghanaian filmmakers to think beyond making the film.

A film needs an audience.

It needs marketing.

It needs distribution.

It needs people talking about it, recommending it, writing about it and paying to watch it.

That entire journey is part of filmmaking.

Festivals can play an important role in that journey.

They create spaces where filmmakers can meet audiences, distributors, broadcasters, journalists, other filmmakers and potential collaborators.

But the festival cannot do it alone.

The filmmaker has to participate in building the life of the film.

This is the conversation

BSIFF 2026 is not saying Ghanaian cinema should turn inward.

Quite the opposite.

We want Ghanaian films to travel.

We want African films to travel.

We want our filmmakers on screens everywhere.

But perhaps one of the strongest ways to go out into the world is to first stand confidently in who we are.

Build the stories.

Build the quality.

Build the business.

Build the audience.

And then invite the world in.

That is part of the new wave of African cinema we want to explore in Kumasi this September.

And this year, Ghana is very much at the heart of that conversation.