Oscar contenders headline the 2026 Encounters South African International Documentary Festival in Cape Tow and Johannesburg taking place from 4 – 14 June. This is alongside 4 world premieres + Berlin, HotDocs & Sundance winners.
Variety recently named five early contenders for Best Documentary at next year’s Oscars. This includes two that will have their African premieres at Encounters South African International Documentary Festival in June 2026
• TUTU, winner of the 2026 Berlin Peace Film Prize, about the Nobel Peace Prize-winning rebel cleric
See: New Tutu documentary comes home to Encounters after Berlin win -home-to-encounters-after-berlin-win-at-peace-film-prize
• Nuisance Bear, winner of the 2026 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, about a polar bear encroaching on human settlements as its Arctic habitat disappears
Africa’s leading documentary festival, Encounters returns for its 28th edition between 4-14 June 2026, with screenings, masterclasses, panels and Q&As in both Cape Town and Johannesburg.
“Just when you thought the news cycle couldn’t speed up any more, AI arrived,” says festival director Mandisa Zitha. “Encounters is an opportunity to slow down and look behind the headlines to better understand our world.”
Opening film: Truck Mama
This year’s opening night film is the African premiere of Zipporah Nyaruri’s Truck Mama. It follows Eva, a rare female truck driver on the Kenya-Sudan route, as she attempts to balance single parenting with long-distance travel. The documentary had its world premiere at IDFA, the world’s biggest documentary festival, where programmers praised the film as “a multifaceted portrait of the vivacious Eva and a nuanced picture of the emotional dilemmas faced by many economically independent women.”
Encounters will host the world premieres of four documentary features from South Africa:
• Notes from the Underground, a music documentary tracing the history of Cape hip hop, from co-directors Adrian Van Wyk and Chris Kets
• Mmabatho Montsho’s Marxism & Period Pains, which unpacks the impact of period pains on girls and women “as an oppressed class negotiating a capitalist reality”
• Pat van Heerden and Edwin Wes’ The Hour After Midnight, investigating the death in detention of trade unionist Dr Neil Aggett during apartheid
• Elan Gamaker’s My Father’s Son, in which the Jewish director meets his Black brother from another mother for the first time over Zoom
WHAT: 2026 Encounters South African International Documentary Festival
WHERE : Cape Town: Labia Ster-Kinekor Bertha Khayelitsha Bertha Mowbray
Jhb: Bioscope Rosebank Nouveau Ster-Kinekor Brooklyn Commercial 13 Ster-Kinekor Sandton 1 Ster-Kinekor Southgate1 WHEN: 4 – 14 June 2026
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INFO: Encounters VISIT
