FRAGILE WORLD. A festival built on the determination to keep creating within it.

SIFFA Independent Film Festival & Awards was founded in 2016 by award winning filmmaker, producer and poet Luba Balagova Kandour. Beside her stood her late husband and creative partner, Mohy Quandour - an internationally acclaimed director and writer whose career encompassed Hollywood and cinema across borders. Their partnership brought together a love of storytelling and a conviction that people must continue to meet, listen and create, even when the world gives them reasons to turn away.

The festival also carries a deeply personal story. As Mohy’s widow, Luba continues the work they nurtured together, sustained by the love, creative courage and generosity of spirit that shaped their partnership. Carrying SIFFA forward has demanded resilience; she brings to it her own artistic vision and a determination to keep opening doors for others. His presence endures in the life of the festival - in the encounters it makes possible and the stories it brings into the light.

That commitment gives particular resonance to SIFFA’s 2026 theme, FRAGILE WORLD. Fragility is something we experience in our homes, our relationships and the futures we once imagined certain. Through cinema, we can give those experiences a language and recognise them in lives very different from our own.

In London, SIFFA brings together independent films, special screenings, masterclasses and conversations with filmmakers. It welcomes established artists and emerging voices, students and audiences willing to be surprised, challenged and moved.

For Luba, continuing SIFFA means honouring a shared past while remaining open to what comes next. Each edition makes room for another filmmaker’s ambition, another encounter, another story waiting to reach its audience.

The world is fragile. What we choose to carry forward matters.

Discover our programme: https://siffafestival.co.uk

Follow the festival and its founder on Instagram:

@siffaukindependent

@lubabalagova