The 21st Cyprus International Film Festival, Golden Aphrodite Awards (CYIFF), will run in Nicosia from 21 to 25 September 2026, opening what organisers describe as a window onto contemporary world cinema, according to a festival announcement. The programme spans fiction, documentary, animation, short films, music and dance films, experimental and VR works, student films, comedy and mobile films, alongside a dedicated focus on women's filmmaking. This year's central themes are roots, memory, identity, love and peace.
Running alongside CYIFF is the 6th International Festival of Women in Film and Television Cyprus (WIFT Cyprus), reflecting a broader effort to strengthen the international presence of women filmmakers. Women's filmmaking is treated not as a single programme category but as a core part of CYIFF's and WIFT Cyprus' philosophy, aimed at more women in creative and artistic leadership roles, greater visibility, equal opportunity and meaningful participation in shaping cinematic storytelling.
This year's programme also gives particular prominence to Nostimon Imar, a category honouring filmmakers of Greek descent from around the world, and to a Diaspora filmmakers strand highlighting that Greek identity extends beyond the geographic borders of Greece and Cyprus, living instead in family memory, language, art and the stories of people who grow up far from their place of origin.
Chinese cinema and a proposed cultural forum
Chinese cinema also features prominently this year. Films such as Ziyuan Wang's A Room of Her Own present a contemporary China through personal and social stories, giving space to different voices and forms of cinematic expression. CYIFF said it hopes to build further on this relationship by exploring the creation of a China-Cyprus Cultural Film Forum, a new space for cultural dialogue between China, Cyprus, Greece and Europe, potentially including dialogue between Chinese and Greek philosophical traditions on questions of ethics, education, harmony, society and humanity's place in the world.
Alongside the film screenings, the photography exhibition Things We Pass By invites audiences to pause and observe what everyday life often doesn't allow them to notice, highlighting the beauty and significance of ordinary things that usually go unnoticed, a theme organisers say echoes the festival's broader philosophy this year.
Stories of home, loss and identity
At the heart of the 21st CYIFF are people searching for home, grappling with loss, trying to understand their identity, loving, migrating, starting over and seeking a way to be heard. In Serbian director Marko Djordjevic's That's It for Today, a family confronts difficult circumstances and tries to heal through laughter and selfless love. In Lucianna Kyriacou's It's Raining, a Greek Cypriot family in London in the late 1970s carries the memory of the 1974 invasion, distance and the experience of diaspora. In the Chinese film A Room of Her Own, a migrant cleaner in Beijing, followed by the director over six years, finds an unexpected way to express her voice, through poetry. And in The Distance We Drift, love, memory and displacement meet in the story of a migrant couple from Hong Kong in Britain, posing a timeless question of how far a person can travel from the place and life they left behind.
Cyprus as a place of memory and bridge-building
Particular weight is given this year to Queen of Cyprus, a documentary focused on the strength and resilience of Cypriot women around the world, exploring home, loss and the capacity to rebuild what has been lost.
In a Cyprus still living with division, the festival's organisers say cinema is seeking other paths of communication, through love, memory, women's strength and shared human experience. That message of peace continues through CWEP, Cyprus Women Environmental Peacemakers, the bicommunal initiative launched by WIFT Cyprus in 2025, which links women's participation in peacebuilding with environmental sustainability. A related event, CWEP - Women, Peace and Environment, will be held on 26 September. The initiative draws on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, which recognises women's significant contribution to peacebuilding processes.
Following a successful two-day conference at the Ledra Palace in 2025 and a symbolic olive tree planting in Pyla, CWEP continues its work with the aim of long-term sustainability and further developing itself as a platform for women's cooperation on peace and environmental action. "By planting seeds and olive trees, we plant hope and peace. It is not only symbolism, it is a statement about how grassroots actions, especially when led by women, can turn conflict into cooperation," said Petra Terzi, founder of Women in Film and Television Cyprus.
Filmmakers to attend screenings
A significant feature of this year's edition is the presence of directors and film representatives, who will meet Cypriot audiences and take part in post-screening discussions. Films including The Eternal Red, Lost Spaces, Memory of Stone and Snow, Twin Flowers, Jane and Zhen, Halima - Eine Anleitung zum Starksein and It's Raining bring different cultural experiences and personal journeys to the fore, alongside shared human needs. Other films to be represented by their creators include Jumah, Echo of Time, Life Without You, Lovebug, Glari, the Female Seagull, PULP, Nasty Little Things, Trojan Affairs, SELF+TAPE and A Day Through My Eyes.
For CYIFF, organisers say, a film does not end when the credits roll. The festival aims not simply to present films, but for audiences to leave with a question, an image or a story that continues to stay with them.
Volunteers interested in taking part in the 21st Cyprus International Film Festival can contact ciffprogram@gmail.com. More information is available at www.cyprusfilmfestival.org.
