ITFFA 2026 honours global tourism films in Johannesburg
The 2026 edition attracted 438 entries from 47 countries, with 174 productions shortlisted and 102 receiving awards. Wilderness Destinations was the biggest winner of the evening, collecting 10 awards.
Held at The Bannister Hotel in Braamfontein, the awards brought together filmmakers, tourism boards, content creators and foreign diplomats to celebrate films that promote destinations, conservation stories and tourism experiences.
Wilderness leads the winners
The festival included a week of screenings, plenary sessions, networking, excursions and a pre-festival tour at Kwalata Game Lodge in the Dinokeng Game Reserve.
A City Sightseeing outing in Johannesburg was also included as part of the pre-festival experience for delegates.
The entries were judged by 46 jury members, split equally between the film and tourism sectors. Films were scored against 10 criteria, with a possible score of 100. Films scoring above 70 became finalists, while Silver Award winners scored between 75 and 80, Gold Award winners scored above 80, and Pinnacle Awards were reserved for the highest-scoring productions.
Participants and representatives came from countries including Croatia, France, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, the United States and South Africa.
Wilderness Destinations received the highest number of awards on the evening.
“We felt very proud to take home 10 awards,” said Kate MacWilliam, Group Head of Marketing at Wilderness Destinations. “It’s wonderful recognition for our team, who work so hard going into these beautiful places in Africa and telling the conservation stories, the stories of restoration, wildlife, landscapes and people.”
She added: “They help people come to Africa and appreciate what we’ve got here, and that helps conservation, because when people come to these properties, they’re able to give back.”
The Aquila Collection also collected awards across the Tourism Services categories for Elephant Encounters, Golden Hour in the Karoo and Summer Safari at Aquila.
The Pinnacle Awards represent the festival's highest honours and recognise productions that achieved the strongest scores during the judging process.
This year's Pinnacle Award winners were:
• Best Tourism Film — Wilderness Bisate — The Sanctuary
• YouTube Channel — What Is Tibet Really Like?
• Best Documentary — Bucket: The Lion Cub
• Best Short Documentary — Guardians of the Corridor
• Directors' Award — You Are Not the Alpha Here, Wilderness Destinations
Growing tourism storytelling
The festival also included the Young Creatives Student Challenge, ITFFA's youth development programme for final-year, Honours and Master's film students.
The programme gives young filmmakers training in smartphone and gear filmmaking, tourism storytelling and entrepreneurship. This year's cohort was facilitated by Ati Fouché.
According to ITFFA co-founder James Byrne, the students are involved across the festival, assisting with curation, photography, video and logistics.
Several awards were collected by diplomatic representatives on behalf of filmmakers who could not attend.
Portuguese titles were received by António Sabido Costa, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of Portugal, while the Greek award for Cellar 10 was collected by Orestis-Athanasios Kafopoulos, Consul General of Greece in Johannesburg.
The Iranian Silver Award for Damascus was collected by H.E. Dr Hamidreza Oraee, Deputy Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to South Africa.
ITFFA was launched in Cape Town in 2019 and moved to Johannesburg in 2024. Its founders say the festival will continue to move across South Africa, the continent and beyond.
The festival aims to strengthen collaboration between the tourism sector and filmmakers while recognising audio-visual storytelling that promotes destinations, tourism products and travel experiences.
“We look forward to moving the festival around the country and across the continent and beyond,” said Byrne.