The Saint-Louis International Documentary Film Festival — Stlouis'Docs — opens its 17th edition in Saint-Louis, Sénégal on April 28 and runs through May 2. Organized by Krysalide Diffusion, the festival is one of the oldest and most consistent documentary platforms on the continent, drawing filmmakers, programmers, and audiences from across Africa and Europe each year.
Alice Diop as Guest of Honor
The edition's retrospective centerpiece is filmmaker Alice Diop, who will be in Saint-Louis from April 29 to May 1 for three days of screenings, conversations, and public debates around her work. Diop will receive the SARGAL'DOCS award, the festival's recognition for documentary contribution.
Born in Aulnay-sous-Bois to a Senegalese family, Diop trained in History at the Université Panthéon-Sorbonne and studied visual sociology before joining La Fémis's documentary workshop. Her short and medium-length films — including Les Sénégalaises et la Sénégauloise (2007), La Mort de Danton (2011), La Permanence (2016), and Vers la Tendresse (2016) — collected prizes at Cinéma du Réel and earned her a César for Best Short Film in 2017. Her feature documentary Nous (2021) won both the Encounters Award and the Best Documentary Award at the Berlinale. Her fiction debut, Saint Omer (2022), competed at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion and the Lion d'Or du Futur. It later received Césars for Best First Film and Best Original Screenplay, and was France's submission for the Academy Awards in 2023.
Official Poster
The 2026 poster image is by Aïssatou Ciss, a Senegalese photographer who works between Gorée Island and Dakar. Ciss developed her practice on film sets before turning to art photography, with a focus on memory, identity, and the relationship between the real and the imagined. Her work has been shown internationally in Greece, Italy, Côte d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Mali, Sénégal, France, Kenya, and Germany. In 2024, she co-directed the short documentary Dox dadje Marcher, se croiser with Eléonore Coyette, which was selected that same year at Stlouis'Docs.
Programming Committees
The feature-length selection was read by Sellou Diallo (Sénégal), John Schlegel (Cameroon/Switzerland), Annejo Brigaud (Sénégal/France), Laura Feal (Sénégal/Spain), and Fama Ndiaye (Sénégal). The short-film selection was handled by Rima Kerkebane (Algeria), Massow Ka (Sénégal), Aïcha Deme Sanka (Sénégal), Kosi Sessi (Togo), Marie-Cécile Crance (France), and Dimitri Ouédraogo (Sénégal/Burkina Faso). Both committees worked under the coordination of Dominique Olier. A press conference presenting the full program took place in Dakar on March 28.
The Selections
National Competition features six Senegalese short and medium docs: Dakar Panafricain (Ismaël Mahamadou Laouali and Julie Kleinman), La Reine du Siko (Arfan Barro Yarou), Le Fil de l'Autonomie (Massow Ka), Siftor! (Salimata Bâ, Sénégal/Mauritanie), Sur les Pas d'un Cheikh (Moussa Samaké, Sénégal/Mali), and Xam Xam (Sara Gadiaga). The winning film receives a grant from the festival and its partners.
Outside competition, three special workshop screenings are programmed: Talents du Fleuve (Écran du Fleuve), Bouts de Ficelles (Plan B Films), and Ndar'Docs (Krysalide Diffusion and Forut Médias).
International Short Film Competition brings together 14 short and medium docs from across Africa, Europe, and the Americas: A Vol d'Oiseau (Clara Lacombe, France), Amor.e (Loba Kodjo, Maroc/Côte d'Ivoire), An Open Field (Teboho Edkins, Kenya/South Africa), Atemit Sembe (Abdoul Aziz Basse, Sénégal), Beyond Olympic Glory (Shedrack Salami, Nigeria), Concrete Moves (Fagamou Fama Ndiaye, Sénégal), Doudou — La Magie du Rythme (Sjors Swierstra, Sénégal/Netherlands), Katasumbika (Petna Ndaliko Katondolo, DRC), L'Mina (Randa Maroufi, Maroc), Lassiguili (Zeinab Soumahoro, Côte d'Ivoire), Ratures (Evelyne Agli, Bénin), Rue 31 x 18 (Demba Dia, Sénégal — world premiere), Werga (Jeannine Dissirama Bessoga, Togo), and Yan Bida (Jamilou Laouali Salaou, Niger). The festival and its partners will award a grant to the winner.
International Feature Competition selects seven films: Les Voyageurs (David Bingong, Cameroun/Maroc/Espagne), Liti Liti (Mamadou Khouma Gueye, Sénégal/France), Tin Hinan, La Dernière Nomade (Leïla Artese Benhadj, Algérie/Italie/France), La Dernière Rive (Jean-François Ravagnan, Gambie/Italie/Belgique), Kevine et Fortune (Sarah Imsand, Cameroun/Suisse), A Travers Tes Yeux (Brigitte Poupart, Haïti/Canada), and Chemin de Terre (Simon Desjobert, Éthiopie/France). TV5 MONDE will award a grant to the winning feature.
Two features screen out of competition as Special Screenings: Didy (Gaël Kamilindi and François-Xavier Destors, Rwanda/Suisse) and Wolobougou (Camille Varenne, Burkina Faso/France), which closes the festival.
Stlouis'Docs 2026 runs April 28–May 2 in Saint-Louis, Sénégal. Full program information is available at kdiffusion.com.
