BAFTA and BIFA qualifying · Eighth edition
Curtain up in
The festival is on
The festival opens at Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle — Saturday 5 September, 1pm.
Now booking
The 2026 programme is live
A UK first look at footage from Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Children of Blood and Bone, with the director in attendance. Yemi Bamiro’s Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story screening in all three cities. Eight competition shorts, industry panels and four evenings of online sessions.
Nine days, three cities
- Sat 5 September Newcastle Tyneside Cinema — opening day
- Sun 6 September Birmingham MAC Birmingham — third year
- Mon 7 – Thu 10 September Online Four evenings of industry sessions
- Fri 11 – Sun 13 September London BFI Southbank — closing weekend and the Awards
S.O.U.L. Cast
Can’t get enough S.O.U.L.?
The festival is nine days. Our podcast runs the other 356 — long, unhurried conversations with Black British filmmakers about how they actually built their own way in. On Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Acast.
Don’t miss the additions
Programmes grow. Guests get confirmed. Screenings get added, and the best ones sell out before we have finished announcing them. Our mailing list hears first.