Saudi-Iraqi film Hijra wins top honours at Cape Town's HACC 2026

Festival attendees pose in front of the official media backdrop at the 2026 Hollywood African Cinema Connection (HACC) film festival with Creative Director Weaam Williams.

Saudi-Iraqi feature film Hijra has won Best Feature Film at the 2026 Hollywood African Cinema Connection (HACC), topping a festival programme celebrating African and Middle Eastern storytelling.

Directed by Shahad Ameen, the film was recognised for its storytelling, cinematic craft, performances and use of landscape.

HACC creative director Weaam Williams said she first watched Hijra at the Red Sea Festival and immediately connected with the film.

“Audiences who watched it at HACC were equally taken with the film, and that response tells me it deserves a far wider audience,” Williams said.

She said HACC would continue exploring opportunities to bring the film to local cinemas and reach communities across South Africa and the continent.

The festival opened with Mohamed Al-Daradji’s Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream and included a special screening of Rise: The Siya Kolisi Story.

Audience members gather in the auditorium for a screening of "The Boy Behind the Wardrobe" at the 2026 Hollywood African Cinema Connection (HACC) film festival.

South African filmmaker Lwazi Duma’s Izenzo Zami received an honourable mention.

Williams said the jury was impressed by the film’s ambition, direction and use of established South African actors in a story about alcoholism.

In Her Shoes, by Nigerian filmmaker Ella Ogechi Chikezie, won Best Short Film.

The film follows a tween girl living with autism in rural Nigeria, where understanding of the condition is limited.

South African filmmaker Sabelo Zamisa’s Ori received an honourable mention. The film explores grief, modernity and culture through the story of a young person who loses a sibling.

Namibian writer and producer Tekla Nakale holds the trophy for her film Okuruwo: Tale of the Holy Fire, winner of the Weaam Williams Founder Award at the 2026 Hollywood African Cinema Connection (HACC) film festival.

Paikar, directed by Dawood Hilmandi, won Best Documentary.

Produced across the Netherlands, Afghanistan and Iran, the film explores the lives of a family shaped by migration.

The documentary was selected as the Netherlands’ official submission for the International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards.

Paikar was among the documentaries selected for the HACC 2026 programme.

The honourable mention went to Albert Maritz’s The Boy Behind the Wardrobe, a character-driven film about Winston Wicomb, who was marginalised under apartheid because of the colour of his skin.

The film also examines Wicomb’s collaboration with heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard.

Namibia’s Okuruwo: Tale of the Holy Fire won the Weaam Williams Founder Award.

Williams praised the film’s production quality and storytelling, describing it as an indigenous magical-realist tale of the Himba people.

The festival thanked the filmmakers who screened their work, as well as the team behind the event: Nafia Kocks, Bheki Dladla, Thandekhaya Ncosani, Kastarine Kgola and Andrew Ngare.

HACC also acknowledged its audience and partners, including IOL, Photohire and the First Nations Collective.

HACC 2026 was financed by Holocene Films.