Stars Lit Up Opening Night as Joburg Film Festival Launched with Laundry (Uhlanjululo)

The Joburg Film Festival (JFF) opened its 8th edition in style on Tuesday night, rolling out the red carpet at Theatre on the Square in Sandton for the South African premiere of Laundry (Uhlanjululo) — the debut feature from Durban-born filmmaker Zamo Mkhwanazi. What followed was one of those rare opening nights that reminded audiences why cinema matters.

The venue buzzed with energy as film and cultural heavyweights — including Bonko Khoza, Sisa Hewana, Eddie Hamilton and Noluthando Ngema — joined the cast, filmmakers and industry figures on the red carpet before the screening. When the credits rolled, the audience responded with sustained applause. That kind of reaction was not engineered. It was earned.

A Story Rooted in Family Memory

Set in 1968, Laundry (Uhlanjululo) tells the intimate story of a Black family running a laundromat in a whites-only area under apartheid. Starring Ntobeko Sishi, Tracy September, Zekhethelo Zondi, Siyabonga Shibe and Bukamina Cebekhulu, Launched with Laundry (Uhlanjululo) did not approach apartheid as a political abstraction — it mapped its violence through the quiet, accumulating pressures on a single family trying to survive with dignity.

For Mkhwanazi, the story was deeply personal. “My grandfather had a laundry and when apartheid came in, he lost his business,” she told Variety. “That loss was always there in the back of my mind as a place where my intergenerational wealth was taken. I knew Launched with Laundry (Uhlanjululo) had to be my first film.”

Launched with Laundry (Uhlanjululo) arrived at JFF fresh from its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Film Fatale described it as “thrilling African cinema.” The opening night sold out. Its South African homecoming, before a Joburg crowd, carried a different and deeper weight.

Feel the Frame

Festival founder and executive director Tim Mangwedi said the choice of Launched with Laundry (Uhlanjululo)as an opening film was deliberate. “Laundry captures exactly what cinema should do — make you feel. The response on opening night showed how deeply this story connected with audiences.”

The evening also served as the launch of JFF’s 2026 theme, Feel the Frame — a deliberate invitation to move beyond what a film is about, and into how it is experienced: the textures, the sound, the rhythm, the atmosphere that a director builds frame by frame. Post-screening festivities kept the energy alive with a set by Lelowhatsgood.

A Festival Built for Joburg

Now in its 8th edition, the Joburg Film Festival ran from 3 to 8 March 2026, presenting 138 films in total — including more than 60 feature films, 18 documentaries, 65 short films and 9 student works — alongside filmmaker Q&As, industry panels and masterclasses. The 2026 programme was curated from over 700 submissions across 98 countries, whittled down to a selection that JFF Curator Nhlanhla Ndaba described as “layered, human stories from across the continent and the world — films that are entertaining, challenging and deeply resonant.”

South African cinema featured prominently throughout, including the Warren Masemola-fronted Kabelo, set in Lesotho, and Variations on a Theme by the Namaqualand-based filmmaking duo Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar, winners of the top honour at this year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam Tiger Competition. International highlights include Zoey Martinson’s Ghana-set The Fisherman and a short film directed by Idris Elba set against the backdrop of Lagos.

Screenings took place across six Johannesburg venues: The Bioscope, Egrek Cinema, Theatre on the Square, The Forge, Artistry and Nu Metro Hyde Park. Tickets were priced from R50 to R200 and were available at Webtickets.

The festival closed on 8 March with the world premiere of The Trek, a western-horror from first-time filmmaker Meekaaeel Adam, at Theatre on the Square — bookending a week that announced, loudly, that South African cinema is confident, globally relevant and ready to command the screen.

The Joburg Film Festival 2026 was presented in partnership with MultiChoice Group, a CANAL+ company.