The 13th European Film Festival South Africa presents the latest award-winning, critically-acclaimed and star-studded European films for local audiences to experience in cinemas around South Africa from 17 to 27 September. And eight top-end films will be screened at the New Noise Courtyard, on Durban’s Point, over the weekends of 18 to 20 September and 25 to 27 September.
As the world faces ever faster and enormous changes, the festival’s offerings from across the continent paints intimate, human portraits of family in all its different forms as vital to personal, psychological and social survival.
The 13th European Film Festival South Africa brings eight exciting titles to Durban, showcasing an exceptional selection of contemporary European cinema. The programme includes new work from Oscar-winning directors Pawel Pawlikowski and Paolo Sorrentino, social-realist legends the Dardenne Brothers, and BAFTA-winning feature debutant Akinola Davies Jr., alongside intriguing and engaging films from both established and emerging European storytellers.
Featuring outstanding performances from some of Europe’s finest talent—including Mads Mikkelsen, Javier Bardem, Sandra Hüller and Carice van Houten—as well as a host of exciting newcomers taking on demanding and emotionally charged roles, the Festival explores family in all its complexity, examining its realities, relationships and challenges across time, place and genre.
The Last Viking, opens the Festival in Pretoria and the moves to Durban -with Denmark’s biggest star Mads Mikkelsen, leading the star-studded cast of this madcap, blackly comic Danish family-drama/crime-caper-noir about brothers, mental health, past secrets, the Beatles and getting by with more than a little bit of help from your friends.
Winner of the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut, My Father’s Shadow (UK), British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr’s first feature marks the arrival of a vital, bold new voice in world cinema. Poetically realised with haunting imagery and bustling, vivid, angry life it’s a deeply personal film that’s a tribute not only to its creators’ own father but to all parents who daily face the struggles to keep their families alive and together at all costs.
Oscar- and BAFTA-winning leading Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) reteams with collaborator Toni Servillo in La Grazia (Italy). Servillo won a Best Actor statue at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in this elegantly styled, intimate drama about fathers, daughters, love, duty and the eternal question of “who owns our days?”- set against the grubby backdrop of Italian politics.
Colours of Time (France), directed by Cédric Klapisch is a family drama that weaves together stories from one family’s 19th century past and their 21st-century present. A memorably delightful and touching exploration of art, family and history.
Porcelain War (Ukraine) directed by Brendan Bellomo and this stunning documentary’s key protagonist, Slava Leontyev, is an inspirational Oscar-nominated film in which Leontyev, his wife, and their friend tell, at great personal risk and with footage they shot, the story of how their lives as artists were brutally upended by the war in Ukraine. Now, with roles as Ukrainian soldiers – they’ve never lost their passion for art and nature as they risk everything for family, nation and freedom.
In A Family (Netherlands) Dutch director Mees Peijnenburg offers a powerful window on divorce in modern Europe, told empathetically through the eyes of a brother and sister trying to each find their own ways and hopefully a path together through the aftermath of the bitter war between their parents. It stars Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones) and Pieter Embrechts.
Veteran award-winning Polish director Agnieszka Holland offers an energetic and generally bright biopic about the enigmatic literary genius Franz Kafka, in Franz. The film contemplates its protagonist, his difficult relationship with his father, and imagines how his legacy might be celebrated in the future.
Ireland’s Christy is the debut feature from Brendan Canty that has picked up many nominations and awards at this year’s Irish Film and TV Awards for its tender direction and impressive lead performance from Danny Power as the title character – a teenager with a murkily remembered tragic past, who, after he’s kicked out of his latest foster home, returns to Cork to stay with his estranged brother. As he tries to figure out his future, he rediscovers the relationship with his brother and begins to imagine a home among people in a place he might yet grow to know and love.
“Working alongside the European Film Festival for the past six years has been a privilege, and hosting screenings at our new event space in Durban marks an exciting new chapter. We hope to build on the incredible foundation laid by Peter Rorvik, continuing to energise Durban’s creative and cultural landscape. Ultimately, this festival is about more than world-class cinema – it’s about bringing people together. We invite the community to join us and be part of it.” Steve Jones (New Noise, Founder & Director).
The festival pays tribute to the tireless dedication and vision of a former co-director of the festival Peter Rorvik, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Peter was a passionate supporter of independent films, and nurtured a generation of film lovers and filmmakers across South Africa and beyond for decades.
The 13th European Union Film Festival South Africa takes place from 17 to 27 September 2026 at venues in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria. In Durban, screenings will be held at New Noise Courtyard, a multi-purpose cultural space that will be transformed into a mini-theatre to present these films at 5 Southampton Street, Point, Durban Secure parking is available at uShaka Marine World.
Tickets are limited to 40 tickets per screening and can be purchased via Quicket. Refreshments and popcorn will also be available to purchase.
For the full programme and schedule follow on social media or go to www.eurofilmfest.co.za
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My Father’s Shadow — Friday 18 Sept, 7:00 PM
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Colours of Time — Sat 19 Sept, 5:00 PM
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Christy — Sat 19 Sept, 8:00 PM
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Franz — Sun 20 Sept, 5:00 PM
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The Last Viking — Fri 25 Sept, 7:00 PM
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Porcelain War — Sat 26 Sept, 5:00 PM
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A Family — Sat 26 Sept, 7:30 PM
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La Grazia — Sun 27 Sept, 5:00 PM
