Dika Ofoma, others Selected for La Fabrique Cinéma

Nigerian filmmaker Dika Ofoma, Kenyan director Lydia Matata, and Moroccan filmmaker Kenza Tazi have been selected for the 18th edition of the La Fabrique Cinéma (The Cinema Factory) ahead of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. The La Fabrique Cinéma is the Institut français programme that brings first-and second-feature projects from Global South filmmakers to Cannes each year. 

La Fabrique Cinéma program is designed to support young filmmakers from emerging countries, helping them bring their first or second feature-length film projects to the international market. Held annually during the Cannes Film Festival and Marché du Film, it provides tailored coaching, networking opportunities, promotes the emergence of young filmmakers from developing and emerging countries, and offers co-production opportunities with international producers.  Conceived in close collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival and its Marché du Film, La Fabrique Cinéma de l’Institut français selects each year ten 1st or 2nd feature film projects to present and introduce them in a privileged way to the industry and its decision-makers during the Cannes Film Festival.

The 2026 cohort includes 12 women and 7 men: 5 female directors, 5 male directors, 7 female producers, and 3 male producers. Three African filmmakers from Kenya, Nigeria, and Morocco have been selected. 

Matata’s Strong Wind is  produced by Ivy Kiru under AQ Pictures. The film follows a grieving mother as she learns to ride a motorcycle to complete her daughter Kemi’s unfinished journey to Northern Kenya. The daughter, a co-founder of the women’s biker club Pepo Kali, died in an accident, and the mother’s ride becomes a quest for healing. As she trudges on, she will unearth secrets that derail her healing and ride. 

Matata is one of the writers of Country Queen, Kenya’s first Netflix original drama series. She directed and produced the documentary Kenyan on Mars, now screening on Al Jazeera’s Africa Direct platform. Her recent narrative short, Float, has screened at Kurzfilmtage Winterthur Film Festival and Joburg Film Festival, among others. The project won the production prize at Red Sea Souk. The film has a budget of €628,578, with €43,166 confirmed financing. The project is seeking co-producers and financiers.

Ofoma’s Till The Morning Comes, produced by Blessing Uzzi under Bluhouse Studios, is set in pre-colonial Igbo society and present-day Enugu. In pre-colonial Igbo society, a warrior chief and a woman are forcibly separated and swear to find each other again. In present-day Enugu, they are reincarnated as two men. Nnanna, a Nigerian-Italian photographer, and Achebe, a Catholic priest in training, find themselves bound by that ancient promise. As their connection deepens, Achebe must confront the conflict between his faith, his vocation, and a love considered taboo in Nigeria. The project has €460,249 in confirmed private equity in Nigeria, against a total budget of €841,652. The project is seeking French and European co-producers, sales agents, and film funds.

Tazi’s Laissées-pour-compte (Left Behind) is produced by Ayoub El Jamal under A.T.A Production, the Rabat-based company founded in 1978 by pioneer director Mohammed Abderrahman Tazi. Morocco’s last La Fabrique selection was in 2016. The film places four women — strangers from entirely different backgrounds — in the same prison cell after a police raid on a doctor performing illegal abortions. The only thing they share: an unwanted pregnancy. The film has a budget of €1,165,700 with €14,192 confirmed financing from a Moroccan Cinema Center screenwriting grant and a first-prize win at the Tétouan Workshops pitch competition. Tazi’s project is still in its first draft stage and is seeking co-producers, distributors, broadcasters, and financing partners.