African Films 'Congo Boy' & 'Ben'Imana' Win Major Prizes At Pingyao Film Festival

African cinema shone at the tenth edition of China’s Pingyao International Film Festival (September 24-30), with features from the Central African Republic and Rwanda taking top honours in the Roberto Rossellini awards.

Rafiki Fariala’s musical drama Congo Boy, a co-production involving CAR, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and France, was awarded the Best Film prize, while Rwandan feature Ben'imana, directed by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, claimed the Jury Award.

The dual wins continue a standout festival run for both titles, following their success at Cannes earlier this year, where Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset won Best Actor for Congo Boy and Dusabejambo took home the Caméra d'Or.

Founded in 2017 by director Jia Zhangke and festival veteran Marco Müller, the Pingyao festival is held inside a converted diesel-engine factory within the UNESCO World Heritage-listed ancient city of Pingyao. Dedicated to platforming emerging talent outside the Western festival circuit, its dual competition tracks – Crouching Tigers for international features and Hidden Dragons for Chinese-language cinema – have previously featured early works by filmmakers such as Chloé Zhao, Wei Shujun and Liu Jian.

The Roberto Rossellini Best Film prize is the section's top honour for international films. An autobiographical work, Congo Boy follows a young man displaced by war in the Congo, navigating extreme poverty and family responsibility. The film draws on Fariala's own childhood in a neorealist-adjacent style focusing on a character who “confronts his world with optimism despite dark times and takes on his shoulders the destiny of his entire family.”

Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo's Ben'imana, which means “child of God” in the Kinyarwanda language, is set against the backdrop of Rwanda's post-genocide reconciliation process. The film follows a woman torn between her desire to unify her community and her inability to confront her own past, with the jury calling it “a deeply moving film that takes the ambition to deal with collective trauma.”

The Fei Mu Awards' Chinese-language competition gave both its Best Film and Best Actor prize to Shanxi native Niu Niu's Final Payment, about a homeowner struggling to defend his rights against a relentless contractor. The jury praised the direction that leads audiences “into a reality and emotional landscape so expansive.”

Best Director in the Fei Mu Awards went to Xu Zao’s debut, hand-drawn animated feature Light Pillar. Sun Yi won Best Actress for A Joke, directed by Wang Xiaozhen, for a performance the jury described as “rich with emotional layers” in its portrayal of “regret and growth within an intimate relationship.”

Dong Jie's Zoom In, Zoom Out took both the Fei Mu Jury Award and the Cinephilia Critics' Award. The film follows the search for a missing person through clues hidden in an online game, with the Cinephilia jury describing it as offering “a third option” to the classic red pill or blue pill dilemma, for its portrait of “the spiritual void of our time.”

Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi's Yesterday The Eye Didn't Sleep, set in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley among women bound by tribal codes, won both the Roberto Rossellini Special Mention and the Netpac Award for Best First Film. It was shot entirely with non-professional actors and without a script, and the jury called it “a poetic masterpiece that refuses to pass judgment.”

Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel took Roberto Rossellini Best Director for Filipiñana. The film also won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision at this year’s Sundance film festival, and also made its mark at this year's Toronto International Film Festival, where it screened in the Platform section.

Pingyao Market Changes

On the industry side of the festival, PYIFF replaced Pingyao Project Promotion with the inaugural “Cultivation Section”, which encompassed three strands: Literary Picturized Project (LPP), Volcano Engine AIGC Summit, and Shorts Film Market Screening.

Jointly presented by PYIFF, publishing partners and the China Writers Association, Literary Picturized Project (LPP) selected recent literary works with strong potential for screen adaptation, providing a platform for development and collaboration between the literary and film industries.

Volcano Engine AIGC Summit, co-hosted by PYIFF and industry partner Volcano Engine, explored large AI models and their applications in filmmaking, sharing current practices and examining new possibilities for film creation and the industry. Shorts Film Screening showcased filmmakers selected for Hidden Dragons Shorts and Pingyao Corner, connecting young talent with industry professionals and resources.

PINGYAO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026:

FEI MU AWARDS:

Best Film: Final Payment, dir: Niu Niu
  
Best Director: Xu Zao, Light Pillar
  
Best Actress: Sun Yi, A Joke, dir: Wang Xiaozhen
 
Best Actor: Niu Jianrong, Final Payment, dir: Niu Niu
  
Jury Award: Zoom In, Zoom Out, dir: Dong Jie
 
Special Mention: Suzhou Quartet, dir: Cai Chengjie

ROBERTO ROSSELLINI AWARDS: 

Best Film: Congo Boy, dir: Rafiki Fariala

Best Director: Filipiñana, dir: Rafael Manuel

Jury Award: Ben'imana, dir: Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo

Special Mention: Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep, dir: Rakan Mayasi

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS:

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon East-West Award: Ann Hui

International Contribution To Chinese Cinema Award: Han Sanping, Marco Müller

10th Anniversary Award: Tang Yan

OTHER AWARDS:  

Youth Jury Award: Whispers In May, dir: Chen Dongnan

Netpac Award Best First Film: Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep, dir: Rakan Mayasi

Cinephilia Critics' Award: Zoom In, Zoom Out, dir: Dong Jie

PYIFF-NAAC Distribution Award: A Girl Unknown, dir: Zou Jing

Fei Mu Awards Best Short Film: Our Secrets, Lenti Liang
Special Mention: If A Walnut Falls, dir: Liu Bohao

Pingyao Corner Best Student Short Film: Black Goat, dir: Wang Wenting
[Shanxi Film Academy, Communication University Of Shanxi]

Special Mentions:
Rainforest, dir: Justine Moo
[Communication University Of China]

Whose Home, dir: Huang Duojia
[Beijing Film Academy]