The Joburg Film Festival returns in glittering style for its 8th edition, turning the spotlight back on Johannesburg as filmmakers, stars and cinephiles gather for one of the continent’s most anticipated cinematic celebrations. On 3 March 2026, the festival officially kicks off at Theatre on the Square in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, setting the stage for a dynamic showcase of bold storytelling and global screen talent.
This year’s theme invites audiences to Feel the Frame. As Festival Curator Nhlanhla Ndaba writes, “We move beyond the what of the narrative to the how of its experience – the textures, the tremors, the palpable atmosphere crafted by a director’s hand.” Nowhere is that more evident than in the festival’s bookends.
What is the opening film for the 8th Joburg Film Festival?
Opening the festival this year is Laundry (Uhlanjululo), the debut feature from Zamo Mkhwanazi. Set in 1960s Apartheid South Africa, the film follows a Black family running a laundry business under fragile permission to trade in a whites-only district. Survival, inheritance, and self-expression collide as patriarch Enoch and his family navigate a system designed to erase them.
As Mkhwanazi explains:
This film captures a sense of quiet dread, the feeling of people continuing to be who they are, while being stalked by a predatory state that has literally legalised the theft of their livelihood… The laundry itself represents a sacred character… Frames go from balanced to overcrowded and chaotic as the main character loses his balance in the world.
Johannesburg, 1968. Khuthala (played by Ntobeko Sishi) hates his father’s laundry and doesn’t want to take over the family business. But the apartheid government is cracking down on black business ownership. Khuthala is torn between pursuing his own dreams of becoming a musician and fighting against the injustice that threatens the business, his only means of subsistence and the glue that holds their family together. The cast also includes SAFTA nominee Siyabonga Shibe, Bukamina Cebekhulu, Tracy September and Princess Bhambatha.
Book the tickets HERE.
The film will also screen on 7 March at 3:15PM at Nu Metro Hyde Park (Cinema 1).
What is the closing film for the 8th Joburg Film Festival?
The festival will close on 8th March with the South African premiere of The Trek, Meekaaeel Adam’s western-horror set in the Kalahari Desert in 1846. A Dutch-Afrikaans family’s journey to claim land slowly fractures under hunger, mistrust, and the natural and spiritual forces of the land itself. Genre becomes a lens to interrogate colonial ambition, myth, and consequence.
Adam reflects:
History is too often written in blood. Without interrogating our pasts, we risk repeating the same kinds of cruelty over and over again… The Trek does not aim to provide easy answers but to make the audience ask whose story we’re telling, who is telling it, and what these stories reveal about the world around us.
In 1846, a Dutch-Afrikaans family and their British benefactor make the perilous journey across the Kalahari Desert to assert their claim on a plot of land. This fateful expedition will force an encounter with two shapeshifting spirits, who place a grisly wager on the party’s lives. As hunger, thirst and fatigue set in, the lost trekkers are persuaded to accept the help of Atshumao – a mysterious Khoen man who emerges from the desert. Misfortune and tragedy dog the party’s footsteps. Preyed upon by the harsh desert, beset by mistrust and desperation, unearthly shadows circle around them as they are stalked by an unseen presence. As paranoia strangles the group and their attackers close in, what measures will they take to ensure their survival? The film stars an established South African cast which includes Morné Visser, well-known comedian Rob van Vuuren, Trix Vivier, Maurice Carpede, Camilla Borghesani and newcomer Leah Lindeque.
Book tickets HERE.
The film will screen on 8 March at 4:30pm at Theatre on the Square (Sandton).
In Laundry (Uhlanjululo), the frame tightens around a South African family in the 60s as their livelihood is slowly constricted. In The Trek, the frame expands across the Kalahari Desert, where land itself becomes a vast, indifferent and unforgiving force. One compresses. One engulfs. Both demand that we feel the pressure of history as much as we understand it.
From 3-8 March, across Nu Metro Hyde Park, Theatre on the Square, Artistry Sandton and other partner cinemas, the 8th Joburg Film Festival asks one thing of you: be in the room, feel the frame, and witness South African cinema at its most daring.
Seats are limited. Secure yours now.
About Joburg Film Festival
The Joburg Film Festival is a six-day annual event that showcases African films within a global cinema context. The festival presents over 60 expertly curated films from around the world, including South Africa, Africa, and the diaspora. Presented in partnership with MultiChoice, a Canal+ Company, JFF has established itself as an independent platform that not only celebrates African stories but also rewards excellence in film.
