All activities / Film Festivals / Stone Town
Film Festivals in Stone TownTZ
Zanzibar's UNESCO-listed old quarter, a labyrinth of carved doors and spice-trade history on the island's west coast, with dive boats leaving from the waterfront and the Mnemba Atoll reefs a day trip away.
Run by Zanzibar International Film Festival, with published dates and a real program.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
The Zanzibar International Film Festival is East Africa's flagship film event, running since 1997 from Ngome Kongwe, Stone Town's 17th-century Old Fort, where screenings play in an open-air amphitheatre inside the fort walls. The program centers African and Indian Ocean cinema, the Dhow Countries, with music and arts spilling through the UNESCO-listed quarter for the week. Watching a premiere under the stars inside a coral-stone fort, with the call to prayer drifting over the walls between films, is the kind of festival experience no purpose-built venue can copy. It shares the Old Fort stage with February's Sauti za Busara, which makes Stone Town a two-festival town.
Best months
Annual, late June to early July: the 29th edition runs June 24-28 2026; 2027 dates publish on the festival site. June is dry season on the island. Screenings are cheap and walk-up friendly; the fort amphitheatre fills for headline premieres.
Getting there & around
Fly to Zanzibar; everything happens within walking distance in Stone Town. Pair the festival with the spice-farm and reef day trips, and book rooms in the old quarter early for festival week.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Zanzibar International Film Festival
OrganizerThe festival NGO, established 1997, staging East Africa's flagship film event from the Old Fort amphitheatre each June.