The iKON Awards 2026 nominees will be unveiled on Saturday, October 24, as the Ugandan film awards prepare for their fourth edition, with the main ceremony scheduled for December 12 at Serena Hotel in Kampala.
The nominee announcement is set to begin at 7:00 PM and will be streamed live on the iKON Awards YouTube channel, alongside coverage through Kwsio TV, available on MTN TV via the Afromobile app, and mainstream media.
This year’s edition is being held under the theme “Beyond Borders”, with the organisers introducing regional categories to recognise films from different parts of Africa.
The announcement will reveal the productions and filmmakers competing across categories covering acting, directing, technical filmmaking, television and several forms of film production.
The organising committee says it has received more than 300 film submissions for this year’s edition, describing the total as its highest record.
The committee has not provided a breakdown showing how the submissions are distributed by country, region or category.
However, the submission figure comes as the awards expand their regional recognition, reflecting their stated Pan-African outlook and focus on filmmakers from across the continent.
Four regional categories have been introduced: Best East and Central African Film, Best West African Film, Best Southern African Film and Best North African Film.
The categories form part of the organisers’ approach to this year’s “Beyond Borders” theme.
The committee has not announced the nominees in these categories or provided details about the number of entries received from each region.
Beyond the regional categories, the fourth iKON Awards will recognise achievements across a wide range of filmmaking disciplines.
The competitive categories include Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role.
Technical categories include Best Cinematography, Best Screenplay, Best Sound Design, Best Editor, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup / Hairstyling, Best Production Design and Best Visual Effects.
The awards also include Best Short Film, Best Documentary Film, Best Animation Film and Best Student Film, extending recognition to different formats and stages of filmmaking.
Television productions are represented through Best TV Series, Best Actor in a TV Series and Best Actress in a TV Series.
The announcement also lists executive and special honours, including Best Emerging Film, Lifetime Achievement Award, African iKon of the Year and African Rising Star Award / iKon Rising Star.
The precise names and distinctions among some of the special honours require clarification from the organising committee.
The nominees and eventual winners of the categories have not yet been announced in the supplied information.
The nominee unveiling is the next major milestone ahead of the December ceremony, which is scheduled for December 12 at Serena Hotel, Kampala.
The fourth edition continues the awards’ stated recognition of filmmakers across Africa, bringing together categories for acting, directing, technical contributions and different types of productions.
For Uganda’s film industry, the nominee announcement will provide a clearer picture of the films and practitioners being recognised in this year’s competition.
The regional categories also give the awards a broader continental scope, with separate recognition for productions from four African regions.
The organisers have not yet provided details about the presenters or hosts for the nominee announcement, nor have they identified the specific mainstream media outlets expected to cover it.
The programme leading up to the awards ceremony is expected to include additional activities beyond the competition itself.
These include screenings of short films produced under the iKON Young Filmmakers’ Fellowship, a nominees’ brunch and the African Film Forum.
The fellowship screenings will bring short-film productions into the programme, although the organisers have not provided the dates, venues or participating filmmakers.
The dates and locations for the nominees’ brunch and African Film Forum have also not been specified. Further details about these activities remain to be announced.
The immediate focus is the nominee unveiling on October 24 at 7:00 PM, when the names of the competing filmmakers and productions are expected to be made public.
The announcement will be followed by the planned fellowship film screenings, nominees’ brunch and African Film Forum ahead of the December ceremony.
The fourth iKON Awards will take place on December 12 at Serena Hotel in Kampala, under the theme “Beyond Borders”.
With more than 300 submissions reported and four regional film categories introduced, the iKON Awards 2026 nominees announcement will mark an important step towards identifying the productions competing for recognition across Uganda and the wider African film industry.
