The Royal Anthropological Institute (RAI) has officially opened ticket sales for its 2025 RAI Film Festival, an event that bridges #cinema, #anthropology, and critical public dialogue. Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the festival will take place in-person from 11 to 15 June at Bristol’s Watershed and Arnolfini cultural centres, followed by a month-long online edition accessible globally from 16 June to 16 July.

Founded in 1985, the RAI Film Festival has become a leading platform for exploring ethnographic and anthropological cinema. Its 19th edition returns under the theme Looking Back, Looking Forward — a title first adopted by the festival in 2005 and now revived to reflect on the legacy of visual anthropology and its contemporary transformations. The theme captures a moment of reflection and anticipation, asking how filmmakers today are reimagining storytelling, confronting archival histories, and engaging with the complexities of the present.

The festival will screen over 90 films from 36 countries, ranging from observational documentaries and essay films to radical cinematic experiments and community-led collaborations. Complemented by panel discussions, filmmaker Q&As, and academic programming, RAIFF continues its mission to cultivate meaningful intersections between scholarly insight and creative expression.

A highlight of the 2025 edition is the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to the late Melissa Llewelyn-Davies, a pioneering feminist anthropologist and filmmaker renowned for her ethnographic work with the Maasai between 1974 and 1994. Her influence extends beyond #East Africa# to British public institutions and post-socialist Europe. A commemorative screening and panel tribute will honour her legacy.

The festival will open with the UK premiere of God Is a Woman, directed by Andrés Peyrot and produced by Duiren Wagua. The film, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival, follows Panama’s indigenous #Kuna community as they rediscover and reclaim a 1970s film made about them. The documentary offers a layered meditation on cultural memory, authorship, and indigenous self-representation.

Passes went on sale on 8 May and can be booked via the RAI website, with individual tickets available in early June at venue box offices. The full programme, including competition titles and thematic strands, will be announced on 22 May.