Phillip Luswata
Veteran actor, producer, and director Phillip Luswata has taken center stage at this year’s Uganda Film Festival as the head of jury — a role that places him at the heart of decision-making for one of the country’s most prestigious cinematic events.
Now in its 12th edition, the festival—organized by the Uganda Communications Commission—serves as a platform to recognize and celebrate the best of Ugandan film. As head juror, Luswata has played a pivotal role in shaping this year’s outcome, leading the selection process and facilitating discussions among jury members to ensure fairness and merit-based evaluation.
“Having looked at most, if not all of the submitted films, I can say we’re making strong progress technically,” Luswata said during the festival’s launch. “But we are still struggling to tell the Ugandan story.”
Luswata’s comments struck a chord. While he praised the growth in technical quality—such as cinematography, editing, and sound—he noted a disconnect between these advancements and the cultural soul of the stories being told.
“At the moment, we have mastered the art of making a basket,” he said. “But what do we put in the basket? We have not yet told the Ugandan story. We don’t yet know the colour of Uganda.”
It’s a powerful metaphor, and one that highlights a key challenge facing local filmmakers: How can Uganda’s film industry evolve beyond aesthetics and begin to reflect the richness, diversity, and nuance of Ugandan life and identity?
Luswata’s critique isn’t just a call for improvement—it’s an invitation for filmmakers to dig deeper, to look inward, and to create stories that are unmistakably Ugandan in voice, perspective, and spirit.
As the industry continues to grow, both in talent and ambition, Luswata’s words serve as a timely reminder: Cinema isn’t just about how stories are told, but what stories are chosen to be told.
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