One City. A Thousand Stories. A New Generation.
13 October 2026
The City of Cape Town is excited to showcase the next generation of filmmaking talent at FAME Week through a selection of films from film schools across the city. This year’s showcase features 16 films spanning a range of genres, giving emerging filmmakers the opportunity to see their work on the big screen and engage with audiences through Q&A sessions.
Screenings will start at 10:00 on 28-30 October at the CTICC. Read all about each film below.
Cook Sisters | The Animation School
Synopsis: In the small South African town of Robertson, twins with vastly different baking styles attempt to run their family-owned bakery together. Things do not work out as planned with their opposite personalities, especially with a meddlesome fly.
Director/Producer: Zoe Prinsloo
Laika Goes home | The Animation School
Synopsis: “If home is where your friends are, how far would you go to find it?
Captain Talia Valentine is an ambitious young astronaut, whose return to Earth is interrupted when she crash-lands on a lonely asteroid. Laika is a little stray dog from the streets of Moscow, who has been stranded on that same asteroid for a very long time…
Talia is in a one-track mind about finding her way off of this forsaken rock. Laika just seems thrilled to have someone to play with her. But when fixes fail, and unexpected communications bridge the expanse between Talia and the Earth, she realises that Laika may be the key to finding her way home – wherever that ends up being. “
Director/Producer: Can Richards
Where it bleeds | UCT
Synopsis: Allison looks back on how growing up as a girl, anticipating your first period is an exciting time. However, the reality of existing as a woman who experiences severe period symptoms often involves medical staff dismissing your pain and not treating you appropriately. During this time, Allison leans on the support of her mother to work through her physical and mental pain. This is an autoethnographic, experimental documentary that reflects on the psychological experience of medical trauma.
Director/Producer: Allison Fleur
Where are we going tonight? | UCT
Synopsis: The buzzing cosmopolitan that is the City of Cape Town is home to new and emerging talent. Young artists push the boundaries of the sounds that shape nightlife and sonic expression in South Africa.
DJ and producer Deylin Malachi invites us into their world of music where he re-imagines and participates in the city’s underground electronic DJ and music scene. Through him, we meet Songo Ananda, who alongside him embraces the legacy of authentic expression through electronic music as both a global and local phenomenon. Each testify to following one’s own unique path and the joys of being part of a greater creative collective movement.
Director/Producer: Refentse Gunguluza, Dylan Gast
Roots and Rhymes | UCT
Synopsis: Roots & Rhymes: The Unfolding Journey of HemelBesem is a 10-minute documentary that traces South African hip-hop artist Simon Witbooi’s journey back to his Khoisan roots. His transformation is visually represented with the cutting of his hair and beard. The camera organically follows and captures the process of his transformation
Director/Producer: Joy Meyer
Still in Play | SA Film Academy
Synopsis: Still in Play is a personal documentary that is centered around the UCT Ikey Tigers women’s team and is told through the lenses of Natasha Hoffmeester coach and former springbok, Dimpho Kwayine current player and Western Province player, Londiwe Tshabalala current player and captain. It both their love for the sport and the severe discrimination they encounter. We see through their eyes the unwavering commitment required to continue playing a game that frequently ignores them. The film shifts from the excitement of match day to the quiet struggles of balancing jobs, education, and physical sacrifice against the backdrop of South Africa’s rich rugby traditions. It looks the structural obstacles that these female athletes encounter, ranging from a lack of resources and funding to the lack of support from society, while also spotlighting their resistance, joy, and relentless fight for change. Through moments of vulnerability, pride, and solidarity, Still In Play askes audiences to rethink what it means to belong in sport, and asks: what would rugby—and the sports—look like if women weren’t just allowed to play, but were truly backed to win.
Director/Producer: Letlotlo Tshepiso Mogale, Mphatso Nkhoma
After school | Film School Afrika
Synopsis: In a Cape Flats township school, one new girl’s arrival turns an ordinary day into an explosion of violence.
Director/Producer: Yamkela Bhokhwana, Sive Mbamatye
Little Lion | Film School Afrika
Synopsis: A boy lives with courage when faced with day to day challenges within his township community. He dreams of getting the bad guys, but one lives at home.
Director/Producer: Sive Mbamatye & Yamkela Bhokhwana, Mpho Makele
Before they sold the sky | UCT
Synopsis: Told in a poetic and biographical style, Before They Sold the Sky tells the story of Kai Reynolds’ familial history in Cape Town. The crew go back to the physical places where his grandparents and great-grandparents had lived: District Six and Walmer Estate. To attach stories and memories to physical places and understand what has been lost. The documentary is also a close look at Cape Town itself and how its sparkly and lively image holds a lot more if you take the time to sit and live in it.
Director/Producer: Kai Reynolds, Mihle Moss
No place like home | Kiddzpas Film Studio
Synopsis: Dr. Patience Ngesi is a respected doctor at a prestigious hospital, but when her declining mental health forces her into forced leave, she must confront the past she has spent her entire life suppressing. As a child, Patience lived in extreme poverty with her mentally ill mother, scavenging from trash bins outside a rural hospital in the 1970s. When a compassionate Hospital Superintendent, Dr. Mehana, sees her suffering, he persuades her to come with him, offering her a permanent place in the children’s ward. However, while she gains shelter, food, and education, she also faces severe bullying at school, where classmates mock her for being an orphan and her mother’s illness. Years later, Patience is an accomplished doctor when a traumatic event—seeing one of her childhood bullies return to the hospital as a homeless patient—triggers long-buried pain. Soon after, she begins suffering from PTSD, depression, and memory loss, leading the hospital board to force her to take leave. In therapy, she undergoes hypnosis, where she relives key moments from her past: her mother’s attempts to take her back, the torment she faced at school, and the loss of identity she experienced growing up in a hospital instead of a home. Through the help of her psychologist, she realizes that home is not a place—it is where you feel love, safety, and belonging. As Patience leaves her session, the psychologist reassures her with the words, “No place like home”.
Director/Producer: Hluma Luzipo, Nomaxabiso Mahlawe
The Boer & The Bride | AFDA
Synopsis: The Boer & The Bride is a heartfelt romantic comedy that explores the complexities of interracial love in contemporary South Africa. After a perfect proposal, Masego must navigate the emotional terrain of introducing Andre to her traditional Tswana family. What begins as a celebration quickly spirals into a clash of customs, misunderstandings, and generational pain; especially when her uncle, Malome, confronts the cultural implications of their union. Themes: – Cultural identity and tradition – Interracial relationships – Family, reconciliation, and generational trauma – Humor as a tool for healing.
Director/Producer: Andre Smith & Tristan Sharp / Philasande Kimberly Mvubu, Mogaugelwa Moremi & Yonelisa Jacobs
Siren’s Call | AFDA
Synopsis: Kaia wakes up next to a lonely fisherman named Marlon, who is deeply in love with her but has no memory of her past. She discovers a haunting call and erratic man named Jakob, who could lead her to the ocean. Kaia learns that Marlon is keeping her for his own gain and tries to escape. A confrontation on the shore shows Marlon wanted to be loved but believed he deserved it for saving her. Kaia refutes this, stating that Marlon abducted her home is at sea.
Director/Producer: Takunda Aaron Chimutashu (Zen ISA) & Alex Ross / Tumelo Ewe Ramaphakela & Bayanda Kamusa Xulu & Hlawulane Phila Hlangwane
F*Slur | AFDA
Synopsis: After a shitty (like … literally) viral onstage disaster tanks his drag career, Dylan Petersen, better known as Shenequa van de Vetkoek (or shall we say: VetPoep) is left humiliated, stripped of confidence, and ghosted by the spotlight. When signups open for the national Mzansi Megastarz competition, he grabs for a shot at redemption: a 30-second performance to prove he’s still worth watching. With his best friend and choreographer Jada at his side, Dylan throws himself into bruising rehearsals and brutal self-reflection. But the comeback grind gets messy fast with fierce rivals like Luna Khumalo, mounting pressure, and a violent reminder of past failures threaten to drag him back under. F*Slur is a sharp, funny, and unapologetically queer story about shame, resilience, and finding power in the spotlight that once broke you.
Director/Producer: Ethan Bob McKay & Samukelo Sithole / Danielle Bezuidenhout
Tomorrow is too far | AFDA
Synopsis: Set in Cape Town, Tomorrow Is Too Far is a gritty, emotionally-charged short film that follows four slaughterhouse workers, Lucky, Cowboy, Sprite, and Hope, as they plan what’s supposed to be a carefree night out. But beneath the surface of their bravado and dreams of escape, lies a dangerous secret. Lucky, torn between loyalty and conscience, grows uneasy as Cowboy brings Hope, a spirited young woman unaware of the group’s darker intentions, into their plan. What begins as a quick detour turns deadly when a robbery at a mansion spirals out of control. Gunshots, betrayal, and panic follow as the group flees the scene, only to be summoned to a remote location by Cowboy’s enigmatic “business partner,” Menner Eugene. In a brutal twist, Menner delivers swift and merciless judgment. One by one, the young men fall, leaving Hope, bloodied and traumatized, as the lone survivor. As dawn breaks, she walks away from the massacre, a witness to the cost of youthful desperation and violence.
Director/Producer: Mihlali Ndlaleni & Robert Williams / Alia Khan Komantarakis
The Legend of The Jack-o Lantern | The Animation School
Synopsis: Jack is an eccentric undertaker who lives alone in his cathedral. His unfortunate hobby is scaring the mourners of his graveyard with horrifying masks. He’s very proud of his work and morbid creativity. One day Jack dons his pumpkin mask and pranks an old man crouched behind a gravestone. This man is someone he never should have pranked. As punishment for his insolence, he is cursed, and the mask binds itself to his face. As he struggles, the man gleams potential within Jack and makes him a grand offer.
Director/Producer: Aidan Pansegrouw
Inyembezi Zendoda | UCT
Synopsis: Lwando Dlamini (33), a young Black Xhosa visual artist from Philippi, confronts the pressures of masculinity while developing a new body of work at the Peter Clarke Art Centre. Haunted by the belief that “indoda ayikhali” (a man does not cry), he struggles to express vulnerability, particularly toward his mother. Through conversations with his friend and hip-hop collaborator, Nande “Dla”, and the process of painting, Lwando begins to challenge inherited ideas of manhood. As his art becomes a form of emotional release, he discovers that vulnerability can be a path toward healing.
Director/Producer: Mandlakazi Zilwa, Liani Maasdorp
