Organisers of the Africa International Human Rights Film Festival, AIHRFF have announced that the fourth edition of the annual event will hold from Monday to Wednesday, December 8–10, 2025, in Lagos.
This year’s edition, themed “Using Films to Bridge Divides,” will feature keynote addresses, film screenings, panel sessions, masterclasses, special appearances, and a closeout session.
According to the organisers, the opening activities, including screenings and panel sessions featuring frontline activists, filmmakers, journalists, regulators, and policymakers, will take place on Monday and Tuesday, December 8 and 9, at 1A Adekunle Owobiyi Close, opposite Government Quarters Estate, Ogba Phase II, Lagos.
The masterclasses and closeout session are scheduled for Wednesday, December 10, at the British Council, 20 Thompson Avenue, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Notably, the closeout session coincides with the global commemoration of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, marked annually on December 10.
Announcing the programme lineup, Founder and Festival Director, Kehinde Adegboyega, described AIHRFF as one of the continent’s largest gatherings of human rights activists, filmmakers, and advocates committed to exposing abuses and galvanising collective action.
Adegboyega listed some of the critical issues the festival highlights, including police brutality, official corruption, abuse of office, weaponisation of poverty and essential services, gender-based violence, repression of free expression, criminalisation of peaceful protests, censorship of the press, and rising authoritarianism.
He noted that unlike conventional filmmakers, human rights filmmakers are both storytellers and advocates, using their craft to illuminate “dark places” where violations occur, aid evidence gathering, and support accountability efforts.
According to him, audio-visual storytelling remains one of the most vivid and reliable tools for documenting human rights abuses.
“It is self-evident and incontrovertible,” he said. “This is why we continue to pass down the knowledge of this trade to existing practitioners, emerging filmmakers, and students through our masterclasses, to expand the ecosystem of civil and rights advocates.”