Inaugural international edition connects landmark Black cinema with new voices through screenings and conversations from 24 September to 1 November 2026. Read the full article.
LONDON / TORONTO / PORT OF SPAIN — 17 September 2026 — The Windrush International Caribbean Film Festival (WICFF) will launch its inaugural international edition from 24 September to 1 November 2026, connecting audiences across the United Kingdom, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago through screenings, conversations and an international virtual programme.
Presented under the theme “Changing the Game”, WICFF places the Windrush story within a wider global history of Black migration, resistance and cultural transformation. Its programme celebrates pioneering filmmakers, athletes, women and community leaders alongside new generations carrying that legacy forward.
WICFF begins in London on 24 September with The Price of Memory at Bernie Grant Arts Centre. The official opening at Kensington Library on 26 September features Horace Ové’s Playing Away and a programme celebrating Black British boxing. The festival then moves through London, Toronto and Port of Spain, returning to London for the 50th anniversary of Ové’s Pressure before closing at Kaiso Blues Café in Trinidad and Tobago on 1 November.
Building on six years of the UK-based Windrush Caribbean Film Festival, WICFF is founded by CaribbeanTales Media Group and delivered with African Odysseys, Alt A Review, Black History Walks, LEX2 (Livesey Exchange and PEMPEOPLE), and Tesfaya Media.
BACKGROUND
Windrush is not simply a story of arrival, but one of courage, imagination, survival and transformation.
For me, Windrush has never been only a British story. It is part of a much larger global moment, when colonised peoples across Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Americas challenged the systems that sought to define and contain them. WICFF reconnects those histories through film.
– Frances Anne Solomon
“The diaspora is real, interconnected and global,” Solomon said. “Across the Global South and its diasporas, our personal stories are connected by the struggle for freedom, dignity and belonging. Geography and colonial versions of history have too often separated us from one another. At a time when migrants and racialised communities are again being displaced, blamed and dehumanised, WICFF is our response.”
SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE
Dates: 24 September – 1 November 2026 Locations: United Kingdom, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, and online Theme:Changing the Game
September
Thursday, 24 September — Bernie Grant Arts Centre, London
6:30 PM — Pre-Launch — Reparations Now The Price of Memory and The Border Czar, followed by a talkback with Chrystal Rose and Dr April Louise Pennant. Hosted by African Odysseys.
Saturday, 26 September — Kensington Library, London
2:00 PM — Official Opening: PioneersPlaying Away, Ackee and Saltfish and Breath of Another, followed by a filmmaker conversation. Hosted by African Odysseys.
Saturday, 26 September — Kensington Library, London
5:00 PM — Black Athletic Excellence: Colour. Creed. Country. and Breaking Barriers: The Paula Dunn Olympic Story, followed by a talkback with Kane Dunn and Dr Spencer Fearon. Hosted by Black History Walks.
2:00 PM — 60 Years of Carnival Iconography: Jit Samaroo and Pan Gyul, followed by a talkback with , Dr Rachelle Nicole Moor. Shorts: Entitled (Adeyemi Michaels) and Roots (Don Letts).
5:00 PM — Pioneers and Heroes Across the Diaspora Hero: The Extraordinary Life of Ulric Cross and My Dad, Guyana and Me, followed by a virtual conversation with Frances-Anne Solomon.
Wednesday, 28 October — Kaiso Blues Café, Port of Spain
4:00 PM — Windrush: A New Generation
A programme of six short films celebrating emerging voices: Sausage Rolls & Jollof Rice, Breath Of Another, Ackee and Saltfish, My Dad, Guyana and Me, The Border Czar, Ugly Afro Hair
Saturday, 31 October — The Hub, Toronto – 837 Dundas Street West
7:00 PM — Women Changing the Game, Part IIMisbehaviour: The Story of Jennifer Hosten. The World’s first Black Miss World , followed by a conversation with Jennifer Hosten, cocktail reception, and book signing.
ABOUT THE WINDRUSH INTERNATIONAL CARIBBEAN FILM FESTIVAL
The Windrush International Caribbean Film Festival (WICFF) is an international platform celebrating Black diasporic cinema from the UK, Canada, the Caribbean
and beyond. Taking the Windrush moment as its starting point, WICFF connects the history and legacy of Caribbean migration with the wider global journeys of Black communities, bringing landmark films into conversation with bold contemporary voices.
One festival. Many communities. One big global story.
