Indigo | SEPT 2025
Farida Gbadamosi is opening new doors for African cinema at festivals where it hasn’t always been in focus. As a Senior Programmer at Tribeca, she champions African voices while shaping what global audiences see on screen.
In this Q&A, she shares what it means to program African films at Tribeca, takeaways from Canex 2025, how African content is perceived in the diaspora, and her journey into programming at one of the world’s most influential festivals.
You are a programmer for a festival that is not known for African film. What does this mean for you and for African films?
Tribeca is an organization that exists both as an a reflection and as well as in conversation with the people of New York City, a place with people from around the world, including from the continent of Africa. I am a very proud Nigerian and it has been great to work at Tribeca and showcase African films and bring in African voices. Going to IATF was a great opportunity to meet with more storytellers from the continent.
You attended the recently concluded Canex 2025 and took part in a session on distribution of African content globally. What were your take aways from this session ?
One of the big takeaways for me is that there are many people who are invested in finding solutions for distribution and that the pathway forward requires collaboration across the continent. And that requires more spaces like CANEX that bring together stakeholders who work in culture to find collective solutions.
As someone based in the diaspora, how is African content perceived in the spaces you have been in and what does it’s future look like?
There is a misconception about African storytelling externally that it might need refining but Africans are fantastic storytellers, the issue is that there is very limited pathways for getting their stories out in the world.
As a programmer, what festivals do you attend religiously and why?
I have worked at and attended a number of festivals, and I think film festivals are a great space for nurturing storytellers and for cultivating the infrastructure that supports them. Some of my favorite festivals to attend are Sundance, Berlinale, Sarajevo Film Festival, New Orleans Film Festival and Camden International Film Festival. I love many more and there are many I still want to attend.
Your job is some sort of a dream job so to speak. Could you tell us how you got started and how you became a senior programmer for a major film festival like Tribeca?
In some ways I fell into film festivals, my focus in school was Health Policy and Sociology, but I always loved film. I started volunteering at film festivals just to watch films for free and then fell in love with the festivals. My Sociology background gave me an unique perspective on films that working at festivals help me better articulate and I eventually made my way into programming.