Damien Hauser’s “Memories of Princess Mumbi” Reveals Limitations in African Film Distribution

After a successful international film festival journey and an international theatrical distribution across U.S., Canada, UK, and Australia/New Zealand, Damien Hauser’s ground-breaking sci-fi Memory Of Princess Mumbi will have a theatrical run across Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania from August to September 2026.

In 2025, Hauser’s film made history as the first Kenyan film to debut in the independent Venice parallel section before going on to have its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The film skillfully blends documentary, drama, and improvised AI-generated landscapes to create a distinctive  African sci-fi that reflects on national trauma, poverty porn, war, and AI. 

Set in 2093, the film follows young filmmaker Kuve (Abraham Joseph), who travels to the remote village of Umata to document the aftermath of a devastating war that outlawed post-2040s technology and brought ancient kingdoms back to life. There he meets Mumbi (Shandra Apondi), a local filmmaker who challenges him to make his film without relying on AI, using only his hands, eyes, and heart. As Kuve searches for his own voice in this unplugged world, he slowly begins to understand that even in a broken world, there is beauty to be found in the small human moments we so often overlook.

Last year, Monument Releasing acquired the U.S., Canada, UK, and Australia/New Zealand rights to the film, spurring the question of when it will be shown on the continent. Now that Bigger Motion, the distribution arm of LBx Africa, has acquired the East African distribution rights to Memory of Princess Mumbi, that question can be put to rest. The film will have a theatrical run across Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania from August to September 2026.

According to Sinema Focus, the film will be available in independent cinemas across Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania from August 2026. A finalised list of cinema partners and screening schedules across East Africa will be announced by Bigger Motion.

Traditionally, internationally ambitious and successful films have, either by design or infrastructural hurdles, stayed outside the continent. The films are made in Africa, about Africans, but are never seen, at least often, by Africans. They tour international film festivals with no screening date or theatrical release window on the continent. But recently, we’re seeing a minimal but commendable shift from this pattern. These films and filmmakers, even if they don’t opt for continental release that matches the scale of a Hollywood production, venture into national or regional distribution. 

Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow, despite being an African story, was only distributed in Nigeria, cutting out a large number of Africans in neighboring countries from accessing the film. Zoey Martinson’s Fisherman had a theatrical release in Kenya, Zambia, and Nigeria. The Nigerian theatrical release will be handled by FilmOne Entertainment, and the Kenya and Zambia releases by Century Pictures in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Lusaka. Now, Hauser’s film is getting a regional distribution across East African countries with no option for West, North, and South African countries. This isn’t an indictment on the filmmakers but the ecosystem that makes national and continental distribution impossible. 

These occasional regional releases give local audiences access and expose the access gap. For decades, African cinema has yet to break beyond national borders, making it impossible to build a Pan-African film audience even when Hollywood production dominates continental screens. The limited number of African films on African screens makes it hard to nurture Africans in African films. 

A continental distribution network and platform don’t exist yet. The success of Memory of Princess Mumbi‘s distribution and others like it might be the foundational dataset for curating and building not just a pan-African audience but also a distribution network.