In addition to the “Out of Europe” film festival, held biennially since 1992, FilmInitiativ presents events and film series on various African subjects and country-specific themes. These include a selection of current events, historic anniversaries, and topics relating to the history and development of African cinematography.

For example, in 1996 FilmInitiativ presented a film and event series in memory of Nigerian civil rights activist and writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was executed in 1995; in 2001 it presented the “African World of Images” programme, including a photo exhibition, as well as several films from the Congo and Western Sahara entitled “The “Long Shadow of Colonialism”.

In 2005, “Filmland South Africa” was presented. 2007 followed up with a series on “50 Years of Independence – Ghana’s Example” and through 2009 several special events were then held on “Railway Privatization in West Africa and its Consequences”.

In 2011, FilmInitiativ offered up two current programme series coinciding with the political revolts in North Africa: “Game Over” in May and “No More Fear” in October.

In January 2012, these were followed by a preview of the Egyptian documentary “Tahrir 2011 – The Good, the Bad, and the Politician”, in cooperation with WDR television.

Ahead of its 20th anniversary festival celebrations in September 2012, FilmInitiativ showed the film series “Africa goes Veedel” starting in May 2012, comprising more than 20 classics of African cinema screened at venues across 13 different districts of Cologne and Bonn.

In June 2013, FilmInitiativ contributed an extensive accompanying cinematic programme to the africologne theatre festival, and in September 2013 this was followed by two long weekends with “new films from North and South Africa”.

For the June 2015 africologne theatre festival, a two-day dialogue forum on the current protest movements in West Africa was held, which will be followed in September 2015 by “African Diaspora Cinema” – a special edition festival with 42 films hailing from across five continents.

All thematic and country-specific special events, series, and the festival itself invite guests from Africa or the African diaspora to participate in events with the local population.