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[BL]ACTION! The Black Film Festival 2026

From 8–11 October 2026, Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V. invites you to the second edition of [BL]Action! The Black Film Festival. At its core, the festival presents film as a source of empowerment, action, education and knowledge production, combining film screenings with conversations on history, production and reception, as well as masterclasses and invited guests.

Under the overarching theme »Community Spirit«, the 2026 festival celebrates the collective consciousness of African/-diasporic [hi]stories – with a particular focus on the history of violence and resistance in the Francophone Caribbean and its diaspora.

Community Spirit refers to the collective consciousness of a community: a sense of belonging, mutual responsibility and shared identity. Throughout African and African-diasporic [hi]stories, this spirit of community has been a vital means of survival and self-empowerment – from religious ceremonies and workers’ songs to anti-colonial resistance and civil rights movements, as well as contemporary forms of anti-racism and empowerment and transnational solidarity activism.

[BL]Action! reminds us that Community Spirit is not only about survival, but also an expression of hope, joy, togetherness, community care and self-determination.

The festival pays special tribute to the pioneers of Pan-African cinema, whose works paved the way for today’s transnational perspectives. Across genres, [BL]Action! presents empowering and intersectional films that critically engage with colonialism, racism and structures of power.

The curatorial team features guest curator Annabelle Aventurin alongside Enoka Ayemba and Sheri Hagen. Aventurin has curated parts of this year’s programme and will also lead a masterclass.

The [BL]Action! film screenings and panel discussions will take place at Sinema Transtopia. EOTO e.V. will host the masterclasses by Annabelle Aventurin and Enoka Ayemba, as well as the closing programme on 11 October.

The Curatorial Team

Annabelle Aventurin is a film archivist and curator specialising in film restoration. Among other projects, she spent four years working on the preservation of films by Mauritanian-French director Med Hondo. She has curated programmes for institutions including the Open City Documentary Festival, Anthology Film Archives and UnionDocs, bringing greater visibility to overlooked films. In 2022, she directed her first documentary, Le roi n'est pas mon cousin (30').

Enoka Ayemba is an independent film curator, film critic and festival consultant whose work focuses on African and African-diasporic cinema as well as anti-colonial resistance. He is a member of the selection committee of the Pan-African film festival FESPACO, served on the selection committee of the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2010, and was an advisor to the Berlinale Forum from 2019 to 2023. He also co-curated the film series Fiktionsbescheinigung and is a co-founder of the Berlin-based curatorial collective Remember Resistance.

Sheri Hagen is a German-Nigerian director, screenwriter, actor and producer. In 2015, she founded the production company Equality Film to tell stories about people who are often overlooked in film and television. Her third feature film, Billie, premiered at Filmfest Hamburg in 2025 and received the award for Best Feature Film at the Pan African Film Festival.

Each One Teach One (EOTO) e.V.