Everyone. Africans and non-africans.

all format (35mm, 16mm, betacamSP, DVD andso on.)

To develop the knowledge about African culture through cinema with films from Africa and the diaspora) and to create a market for African films in Belgium (and Europe) through the normal distribution and media structures (sustainable development). In that sense it wants also to foster the production in Africa and from Africans to have more and more quality products. (Film as an instrument of development). The festival promotes also afro-actors in overall cinema and media productions and their efforts to break through the stereotype casting which is often reserved for them. The purpose of the festival is also to give a critical look to the globalisation in the media and the representation of certain population (africans and others).

AFF started in 1996 in Leuven (Flemish part of Belgium, in the province "Flemish Brabant"). The festival is in principal programmed for the normal public (daily evening screenings). Since 2005 every year a number of workhshops are developped about specific issues (film in RDC, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethopia, Uganda, South Africa, Afro-Actors andso on). The festival has also screenings in surrounding cities and villages before and during the festivalperiod. It developped a tradition in bringing documentaries (african) in Horloge du Sud in Bruxelles, an African cultural centre in the middle of the African community and this a month before the beginning of its festival to inform the african communities about the AFF in Leuven which is 25 km outside Brussels. The AFF works together with cultural centres all over the country to foster cinema of Africans (from Africa and the diaspora) and African culture and history. It publishes every year a catalogue presenting its programme (100 films) in English/French and Dutch. In 2006 a book in French on Congolese cinema is foreseen (Images & Democratie. Les Congolais face au Cinéma et à l'audiovisuel. Une histoire politico-culturelle du Congo des Belges jusqu'à la République Démocratique du Congo (1896-2006)": 480 pages, 200 photos, bibliographie, filmographie and index. In 2003 the festival published the first monography on African cinema in Dutch which exist also in French translation as "Afrique? Quel Cinéma! (editions EPO)". In 2005 a publication on Afro-European actors (LEAF) was also published.