The 2026 edition of iREP International Documentary Film Festival, held from March 18 to 22, marked not just another edition of the beloved gathering, but a milestone 15th anniversary, boldly themed “Transformation”.
This year’s festival unfolded across the halls of the Ecobank Pan African Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos. The partnership with Ecobank Nigeria signalled a renewed continental commitment to creativity, youth empowerment, and the preservation of African narratives.
For the first time in its history, iREP adopted a fully-curated programming model, transitioning away from open submissions. This shift was designed to sharpen its storytelling focus and heighten the artistic coherence of the films selected. The decision proved transformational. With over 30 curated documentaries spanning governance, identity, democracy, advocacy, traditional spirituality, technology, and culture, the festival asserted a renewed authority in shaping the conversations that define Africa’s contemporary reality.
Beyond film screenings, iREP’s signature mix of panel conversations, workshops, and capacity building sessions ensured that emerging filmmakers were active participants in Africa’s documentary future.
This year’s festival opened with a vibrant cocktail reception and industry mixer, an annual ritual that draws Nigeria’s busiest creative minds into one buzzing space. Attendees this year included Prof. Awam Amkpa, Tunde Kelani, Kunle Afolayan, Joke Silva, Richard Mofe Damijo, Sam Dede, Mahmood Ali-Balogun, Pascal Ott and the festival’s Executive Director, Femi Odugbemi.
But it was the opening film MADU, directed by Emmy winning filmmaker, Joel Kachi Benson, that captured the festival’s attendees. The documentary, already celebrated globally following its Disney+ release and 2025 Emmy win, delivered a quiet, intimate, deeply textured portrait of ballet prodigy Anthony Madu’s journey from Lagos to the UK’s elite Elmhurst Ballet School.
Rather than retread the viral fame storyline, MADU foregrounded displacement, longing, identity, and transformation, echoing the festival’s guiding theme. Its reception set a resonant tone for the week ahead.
Inside the screening rooms, the festival carved out immersive worlds. Films like ‘Awon Boyz’, No ‘U Turn’, ‘Awani’, ‘Double Minority’, and ‘Isese’ explored Africa’s layered histories and present day realities from systemic inequities to traditional spirituality.
Tolu Itegboje’s ‘Awon Boyz’ stood out for its compassionate framing of Lagos’ ‘area boys’ as fully realised human beings shaped by societal failures, yearning, and resilience. Its blend of street level grit and startling intimacy lingered long after the credits rolled.
True to its mission of nurturing Africa’s creative future, iREP hosted a three day Mobile Phone Filmmaking Workshop (March 16–18), facilitated by seasoned filmmakers and supported by Ecobank. The workshop trained 120 emerging filmmakers and demonstrated the democratising power of mobile technology in documentary storytelling. Selected films produced during the workshop earned spots in the festival lineup.
