The Africa Film Finance Forum (AFFF) will return to Lagos in October with a focus on building stronger links between Africa’s film industry and the financial institutions needed to fund its next phase of growth.
The 2026 edition of the forum is scheduled for October 5 to 7 as part of Film Week Africa 2026, bringing together filmmakers, producers, investors, banks, insurers, development finance institutions, policymakers and other stakeholders in the creative economy.
Organisers said the forum will focus on practical financing solutions capable of supporting the expansion of Africa’s film and audiovisual industries.
Among the issues expected to dominate discussions are institutional investment, credit guarantees, production insurance, risk management, intellectual property, co-production, distribution, export opportunities and access to international markets.
A major highlight of the gathering will be the introduction of the Africa Film Finance, Insurance and Risk Management Framework (AFFIRM), designed to tackle some of the risks that have historically made institutional financing of African film projects difficult.
The framework seeks to bring together key elements of the financing chain, including financial institutions, production insurance providers, credit and completion guarantees, risk-management structures and professionally prepared film projects.
The forum will also launch Women in Film & Finance (WIFF), an initiative aimed at expanding financial and business opportunities for women working across Africa’s creative industries.
WIFF will provide financial education, mentorship, business development support, professional networking and investment-readiness opportunities. It will also seek to connect women-led creative enterprises with financial institutions and potential investors.
Founder of AFFF, Mary Ephraim-Egbas, said the continent’s film industry needs more than access to capital to achieve sustainable growth.
According to her, Africa already has capital, talented filmmakers and projects with commercial potential, but inadequate financial structures continue to prevent investors and creative businesses from engaging with sufficient confidence.
Ephraim-Egbas said stronger collaboration was needed among banks, insurers, guarantee providers and investors with an understanding of the unique characteristics of film financing.
She said the objective was to move beyond discussions and establish mechanisms that could facilitate actual transactions between the financial and creative sectors.
She identified AFFIRM as an important step towards creating that infrastructure and enabling African film projects to attract more institutional capital.
Award-winning actress and filmmaker Stephanie Linus, who serves on the AFFF Advisory Board, also said the initiative could help overcome longstanding obstacles to financing in the continent’s film industry.
Linus said the framework would address concerns around risk, guarantees, insurance and investor confidence, which have often limited the ability of film projects to secure institutional funding.
The organisers said the 2026 forum would ultimately seek to create a more predictable financing environment for African film and audiovisual businesses while strengthening the sector’s capacity to attract local and international investment.
