All activities / Film Festivals / Stone Town
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Film Festivals in Stone Town
Zanzibar International Film Festival
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 amphitheater 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 amphitheater 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 amphitheater each June.
Also good for film festivals in June:
Torn between Zanzibar International Film Festival and Midnight Sun Film Festival for June?
A plan settles it for your skill and budget, same-day.