Alternativa Film Festival has opened submissions for its 2027 edition, marking its first expansion to Africa, with $120,000 in prize money across seven award categories.
The announcement was made on Thursday at MIP Africa, as the festival, founded and supported by global mobility company inDrive, invited filmmakers from Africa, Asia and Latin America to submit feature films for the competition.
Short film submissions, however, are restricted to African filmmakers, reflecting the continent’s status as the festival’s focus region for 2027. All entries must have been completed after January 1, 2026.
Three of the seven awards are reserved for African filmmakers: the $20,000 Focus Award and two Short Film Awards worth $10,000 each. African filmmakers are also eligible for the remaining categories.
Directors whose films are selected for the competition will be invited to attend the festival and awards ceremony, with travel and accommodation covered by the organisers.
Scheduled for late 2027, the festival’s host country, city and exact dates are yet to be announced. Submissions are free and close on March 1, 2027.
Alternativa champions impact-driven cinema from the Global South, a region home to roughly five-sixths of the world’s population but which remains underrepresented on screen.
Its expansion into Africa comes as the initiative broadens its efforts to improve the reach of films from the region. Earlier this year, it launched Alternativa Distribution, a non-profit model designed to reinvest in filmmakers and local film industries.
The distribution arm offers upfront minimum guarantees for non-theatrical rights, funds subtitling and dubbing, and shares revenue after recovering direct distribution costs.
“Exceptional filmmaking can come from anywhere, but access to international audiences is still hindered by a deeply unequal system,” said Arsen Tomsky, founder and chief executive officer of inDrive. “Alternativa Distribution was created to challenge that imbalance.”
Its catalogue includes Nepal’s ‘Elephants in the Fog,’ the country’s 2027 Oscar submission and winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes in 2026; ‘No Good Men,’ Afghanistan’s co-production and the opening film of the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival; Malaysia’s ‘Lost Land,’ which won the Orizzonti Special Jury Prize at the 2025 Venice Film Festival; and Tunisia’s ‘Four Daughters,’ a 2024 Oscar nominee.
