Martin Scorsese has been named Jury President for the African Short Film Competition at Kenya’s Diani Film Festival, giving the young festival a major international endorsement in only its second edition.
The competition will take place as part of the 2026 Diani Film Festival, which runs from July 24 to August 3 across parts of Kenya, including Mombasa and Nairobi. The African Short Film Competition is scheduled for July 31 to August 1, with 11 films set to screen at Nyali Cinemax on July 31 before the winners are announced at the award ceremony.
Scorsese, one of the most influential filmmakers in modern cinema, is expected to deliver a virtual address at Alliance Française in Mombasa on August 1 during the awards ceremony. The competition will award two prizes: Best Film and Best Kenyan Film.
For Diani Film Festival, the announcement is a major visibility moment. Scorsese’s name carries rare weight in global cinema. His body of work includes Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street and Killers of the Flower Moon.
Beyond directing, he has also become one of the most important global advocates for film preservation through The Film Foundation and its World Cinema Project.
That context makes his involvement with Diani more than a celebrity headline.
Scorsese has a long-standing connection to the preservation and circulation of cinema outside the dominant Western canon. In 2017, The Film Foundation launched the African Film Heritage Project in partnership with the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO to help locate, restore and preserve African films.
His presence at Diani, even virtually, therefore sits within a wider history of engagement with cinema cultures that have often been under-preserved, under-distributed and under-recognised internationally.
The African Short Film Competition will bring together both emerging and established filmmakers from across the continent.
According to festival information, the selected films include works from Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa.
Among the shortlisted filmmakers is Kenyan media personality Adelle Onyango, whose film Home is nominated in the competition. Onyango is one of the more recognisable media figures in East Africa, and her selection adds a local mainstream media connection to a competition designed to spotlight African filmmaking talent.
The competition’s two-prize structure is also significant. By awarding both Best Film and Best Kenyan Film, the festival is building a dual identity: one rooted in Kenya, and one open to the continent. That balance is important for a young African festival trying to grow beyond a local event without losing its home base.
Diani Film Festival was founded and is directed by filmmaker Mathieu Roy, now working alongside Krysteen Savane.
The festival is based in Diani Beach but has expanded its 2026 activities to other parts of Kenya, including Ukunda, Nyali in Mombasa, and Nairobi. Its stated ambition is to bring global cinema to Kenya’s coast while creating space for exchange between African and international filmmakers.
That ambition is reflected in the wider 2026 programme.
Beyond the Scorsese-led short film competition, the festival will host international guests including Tunisian-Canadian filmmaker Meryam Joobeur, who was Oscar-nominated for Brotherhood and directed the feature film Who Do I Belong To, as well as French director and cinematographer Emmanuel Gras, whose documentary Makala won the Grand Prize at Cannes Critics’ Week.
Joobeur is expected to present her work and lead a directing workshop for emerging filmmakers, while Gras will offer a workshop focused on cinematography and cinematic language. The festival has also positioned accessibility as part of its mission, with projections, meetings, workshops and activities expected to be free to the public.
Kenya Film Commission CEO, Timothy Owase, is expected to deliver the official launch address at the opening night on July 24 at Safari Beach. The involvement of the Kenya Film Commission gives the festival an added layer of institutional support at a time when African film events are increasingly being judged not only by the films they screen, but by the networks, training opportunities and industry bridges they create.
For African film festivals, the challenge is no longer simply programming films. The stronger test is whether festivals can become credible platforms for filmmakers, funders, critics, distributors, institutions and audiences to meet in ways that create long-term value.
That is why Scorsese’s involvement matters. It gives Diani Film Festival international attention, but it also raises expectations.
A festival that attracts this level of global association in its second edition is n beginning to position itself as an institution with continental ambition.
The real story, then, is not only that Martin Scorsese will lead the jury of an African short film competition connected to a Kenyan festival. It is that Diani Film Festival, still in its early years, has managed to align local programming, continental storytelling and international film credibility in a way that many older festivals are still trying to achieve.
The Diani Film Festival runs from July 24 to August 3, 2026. The African Short Film Competition screens at Nyali Cinemax on July 31, with the awards ceremony scheduled for August 1 at Alliance Française in Mombasa.
