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Nairobi’s NBO Film Festival is adding a dedicated Short Film Fiction Competition for its seventh edition, running from 15–25 October 2026 across four venues, with the competition selection due on 7 September.
The NBO Film Festival is expanding its competitive programme for 2026 with the introduction of a new Short Film Fiction Competition, giving short-form filmmakers a dedicated juried category at the Nairobi festival for the first time.
Announced on 2 September 2026, the new short-film competition forms part of a broader expansion for NBO’s seventh edition, which will take place from 15 to 25 October 2026 across four venues in Nairobi, Kenya.
The festival will operate three juried competitions this year: the returning Fiction Feature Film Competition, the new Short Film Fiction Competition and the newly introduced Nick Wambugu Prize for Documentary.
Short filmmakers will not have long to wait to discover the inaugural competition line-up. Jury chairs are scheduled to be announced on 4 September, followed by the competition selections on 7 September.
A dedicated competition for short fiction
Short films have previously been part of NBO Film Festival’s programming, but the new category formally places fiction shorts within the festival’s competitive structure.
The festival describes the category as recognising excellence in short-form storytelling.
Submissions for the 2026 edition have already closed, so this is not a new call for entries. Films submitted earlier this year were required to have been completed within 18 months of the festival dates and could not have received commercial distribution in Kenya before the festival.
Priority consideration was given to world, national and regional premieres.
For short films, the submission process opened in March and concluded on 15 July 2026.
The important date now is 7 September, when filmmakers and audiences will learn which shorts have been chosen for the inaugural competition.
NBO expands to three juried competitions
The Short Film Fiction Competition is one of two competitive additions being introduced this year.
NBO is also launching the Nick Wambugu Prize for Documentary, named in memory of Kenyan documentary filmmaker Nick Wambugu, who died in January 2026.
The festival’s Fiction Feature Film Competition, introduced during the 2025 edition, will return alongside the two new categories.
Together, the expansion creates a clearer competitive structure across fiction features, documentaries and short-form fiction.
No cash prize or other monetary award for the Short Film Fiction Competition has been publicly specified in the current announcement.
NBO Film Festival runs across four Nairobi venues
The seventh edition will take place from 15–25 October 2026.
Screenings and festival activities are scheduled across:
- Prestige Plaza
- Unseen Cinema
- Kaloleni Social Hall
- Alliance Française Nairobi
Alliance Française joins the festival’s venue network this year, expanding NBO from the three locations used during its 2025 edition.
The festival is operating under the 2026 theme “Cinema for Us”, with the wider programme including screenings, filmmaker conversations, community programmes and City Dialogues.
Competition selections arrive September 7
NBO is rolling out its programme through a series of announcements during September.
- The current schedule includes:
- 4 September — Competition jury chairs announced
- 7 September — Competition selections announced
- 9 September — Alain Gomis retrospective programme revealed
- 10 September — Opening film and major Special Presentations announced
- 12 September — Festival trailer and ticket sales launch
- 14 September — Full programme and screening schedule announced
For short-film audiences, 7 September will be the key date, when the first group of filmmakers competing in the new category is expected to be revealed.
A growing platform for African cinema
NBO Film Festival was founded in 2017 and describes its mission as strengthening Kenyan and African cinema through exhibition, professional development and connections between filmmakers and audiences.
The festival says its short-film programmes have increasingly become a space for discovering emerging Kenyan filmmaking talent.
Its 2025 edition presented more than 26 films from over 15 countries across Nairobi.
NBO has also previously screened Kenyan films that subsequently developed significant international festival careers, while working with international organisations and festivals on industry and professional-development initiatives.
The introduction of a dedicated juried short-film competition therefore represents a natural extension of a format already present within NBO’s programming.
Industry programme also expands in 2026
The festival is simultaneously building out its industry activities.
The 2026 edition includes the NBO Project Showcase, creative labs and professional exchanges designed to connect filmmakers with industry professionals.
The Project Showcase itself is focused on African feature projects in development and pre-production rather than shorts, but its presence contributes to a broader festival environment centred on project development, collaboration and industry networking.
NBO is also presenting its first filmmaker retrospective this year, dedicated to French-Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis, who is expected to attend audience and industry events in Nairobi.
The retrospective is supported by EUNIC, the European Union National Institutes for Culture.
What short-film filmmakers should watch next
Submissions for NBO Film Festival 2026 are already closed, so filmmakers cannot enter the newly announced category at this stage.
The immediate development to watch is instead the 7 September competition announcement, which will reveal the films selected for the first Short Film Fiction Competition.
The complete programme and screening schedule are then expected on 14 September, ahead of the festival opening in Nairobi on 15 October.
For filmmakers following the development of short-film platforms across Africa, NBO’s decision to move shorts into a dedicated juried competition is a meaningful expansion — and the inaugural selection will provide the clearest indication of how the festival intends to shape the category.
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