The festival will take place in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban.
The festival will open with The Last Viking, a Danish family drama starring Mads Mikkelsen. Picture: Supplied
The 13th European Film Festival South Africa will bring 12 European films to cinemas in four South African cities from 17 to 27 September 2026.
The festival will take place in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban.
This year’s programme explores family and the challenges families face across different settings and generations.
The line-up includes films from Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
‘The Last Viking’ to open the festival
The festival will open with The Last Viking, a Danish family drama starring Mads Mikkelsen.
The film follows two brothers as they deal with mental health, family secrets and their past.
The programme also includes My Father’s Shadow, the feature debut from British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr. The UK production won the Bafta Award for Outstanding Debut and explores the relationship between a father and his children.
Other films include Germany’s Fatherland, directed by Oscar winner Paweł Pawlikowski and starring Sandra Hüller; French family drama Colours of Time, directed by Cédric Klapisch; and Ukrainian documentary Porcelain War, directed by Brendan Bellomo.
The line-up also features Spain’s The Beloved, starring Javier Bardem; Dutch film A Family, featuring Carice van Houten and Pieter Embrechts; Agnieszka Holland’s Franz; Ireland’s Christy; and Portuguese film Aquí, directed by Tiago Guedes and based on South African Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee’s Jesus trilogy.
Tribute to Peter Rorvik
The festival will also pay tribute to former co-director Peter Rorvik, who died earlier this year.
Rorvik was involved in supporting independent cinema and developing film audiences and filmmakers in South Africa.
The 13th European Film Festival South Africa is produced by the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival.
The full programme and screening schedule are available on the festival’s website and social media platforms.
