The FAME Shorts Film Festival returns to Cape Town this September with a powerful platform dedicated to short-form storytelling from across the African continent and diaspora. Running from 4 to 6 September at the iconic Labia Theatre, this year’s programme showcases 31 short films, exploring themes of defiance, belonging, intimacy, and disruption under the banners: Here for the Underdog!, Night Terrors, In Family We Trust and Tender Riot.
Curated for film lovers, producers, and industry leaders alike, FAME Shorts invites audiences into a world of condensed cinema with big impact — from drama and documentary to sci-fi, comedy, and romance. FAME Week Shorts is open to the public every evening from 4-6 September with an Awards night taking place on 3rd September. Tickets are on sale now on Quicket.
Says Lerato Bokako, FAME Week Shorts Film Festival creative director, “The 2025 edition of FAME Shorts is set to be an exciting event this year! From horror to romance and everything in between. It’s an opportunity for discovery of new up and coming artists from Africa and the diaspora.”
The organisers have announced the selection for the 2025 FAME Shorts Film Festival:
HERE FOR THE UNDERDOG!
A salute to those who rise from the margins. These stories champion the quiet warriors—people who endure, resist and transform the world around them through sheer will.
In Being You, a woman confronts her 16-year-old self to undo a trauma that shaped her future. Counterpunch, a gripping animated short, puts a former boxing champ back in the ring for one final, life-altering bout. In Her Khaltsha, young women on bicycles reclaim Khayelitsha’s streets with power and grace. Rearview is a tense, action-packed tale of a driver forced into a dangerous spiral by an unexpected passenger. Elsewhere, Blue Heart gently unpacks migration, King George pits charm against capitalism, The Last Ranger tackles poaching and legacy and Ya Hanouni explores familial love through a bedtime ritual with emotional undercurrents.
NIGHT TERRORS
Enter a world of haunted psyches and supernatural reckoning. These films twist the familiar into the fantastical, where grief, guilt, and transformation take dark and thrilling turns.
Belinda is a macabre comedy where a haunted hotel room turns greed into horror. In Ecstatic Exit, intimacy is reimagined as a sci-fi escape route. Mrs Willow explores ancestral dread in the Zimbabwean mountains, while Wormwood offers a poetic and ghostly meditation on loss. The surreal continues in Awake, Jimbi, and Mango—each tackling memory, consequence and myth with visceral intensity. In Why the Cattle Waits, a goddess returns to Earth to reclaim love, but risks unraveling the world instead.
IN FAMILY WE TRUST
From quiet bonds to broken ties, this category dives into the complexity of family in all its forms—what we inherit, what we protect, and what we must leave behind.
In B(l)ind the Sacrifice, ancient ritual and modern reckoning clash on a mountain. Discarded follows a Johannesburg recycler balancing dignity and survival. Jelly blends childhood curiosity with deep emotional discovery, while V’s Secret unravels into comedic chaos over a misplaced G-string. Also featured are Float, a tender tale of sisterhood forged at a swimming pool, and Gifts from Babylon, which examines the inner scars of migration. Pal offers a quiet tribute to unconditional companionship, and Punter reveals a young boy’s painful awakening to the flaws in his father.
TENDER RIOT
In this collection, intimacy becomes defiance. These films are unapologetic in their softness, queerness, vulnerability and truth—a celebration of those who resist by simply being.
Blind Spots is a queer love story etched in emotional complexity. New York Day Women is a poetic ode to immigrant motherhood. Rainbow Girls returns to Khayelitsha a decade after a queer pageant, uncovering what’s changed—and what hasn’t. The Passage is a harrowing, timely narrative of sexual violence and silence. Onthou vi Fredo? honours the memory of a slain drag performer in the Western Cape, while Pavilhão journeys into the rhythmic soul of Afro-Brazilian samba. The collection closes with The Incredible Sensational Fiancée of Sèyí Àjàyí, a retro-futurist comedy packed with political satire, gender commentary and outrageous flair.
The FAME Week Shorts Film Festival provides a platform for filmmakers to showcase their creativity on a global stage, highlighting African storytelling and contributing to the rise of influential short filmmakers worldwide. Key partners include the host venue, The Labia Theatre, and The Refinery. The Festival is again partnering with the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), to spotlight the endangered African penguin.
The FAME Week Shorts Film Festival will take place from September 4 to 6 at The Labia Theatre in Cape Town.