How Has Africa Fared So Far At The Cannes Film Festival?

The history of African cinema at the Cannes Film Festival is a rollercoaster of trials and triumphs. Since the 1960s when several African countries gained independence, African cinema has acutely represented the complex, eclectic experiences of her people, meandering through traditional and modern allegiances. In 1973, Touki Bouki by Senegalese director Djibril Diop became the first African film to screen at the Cannes Film Festival where it won the international critics’ award. The film follows the story of Mory, a disillusioned young man who desperately plots to leave Senegal with Anta in search of greener pastures in Paris—an attempt that eventually leaves him despondent and stranded. Fourteen years after Africa’s Cannes debut, Yeelen, written, produced, and directed by Souleymane Cisse, a Malian considered Africa’s greatest living filmmaker, made history as the first film by a black African to be selected for official competition at the prestigious event, winning the jury prize. Yeleen is shot in Bambara and Fula and tells the story of a young man with magical powers who embarks on a journey to his uncle for assistance in fighting his sorcerer father. The film is rooted in myth and particularly captures a legend traceable to the Bambara people. Following Cisse’s groundbreaking Cannes showdown, four of his other films, including Waati (1995) and Tell Me Who You Are (2009), premiered at the festival. Between 1975 and 1985, nine African films made it to the Cannes Film Festival, all set against the changing realities of post-independence Africa.

So far, more than 80 African features have jostled for attention at the Cannes. Of the total number, 21 are recipients of major awards, while  22 films are directed by women.   With films such as Mapantsula, a 1988 South African crime film directed by Oliver Schmitz, which tackles the then-persisting Apartheid struggles, Hyenas, a 1992 Senegalese dark satire by Djibril Diop Mambéty, and Rafiki, a 2018 Kenyan drama film directed by Wanuri Kahiu and marking the country’s première at the festival, Africa has projected her cinematic visions beyond limited Western frameworks and stereotypes.

The 2010s and 2020s were particularly crucial as they made up over half of all African features in Cannes history. In 2010, there were  African features such as Un gimme qui crie (A Screaming Man) shot in Chad and directed by Chadian first feature film director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun; Hors-la-loi (Outside the Law), a story set against the backdrop of North African colonial history and the Algerian War of 1945-1962, directed by French-Algerian director Rachid Bouchare; and Life Above All, adapted from Canadian writer Allan Stratton’s novel Chandra’s Secrets, directed by South African filmmaker Oliver Schmitz. There have also been several features filmed in African settings but directed by Europeans. For the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs (The Filmmakers’ Fortnight or The Directors’ Fortnight), at the 2010 Cannes, there were three such films: Benda Bilili!, a documentary shot in Kinshasha, Democratic Republic of the Congo, directed by Renaud Barret and Florent de La Tullaye; ZedCrew, filmed in Zambia and directed by Canadian filmmaker Noah Pink; and Todos vós sides capitáns (You Are All Captains), a story about a European director that adopts an unorthodox approach to making a film with children from a social center in Tangiers, Algeria, directed by French-born Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe.

As African cinema continually evolves with daring stories and filmmakers, the Cannes has equally recorded significant milestones from the region. Two years ago, there were two titles in the main competition and four more in Un Certain Regard. Selected films included Mohamed Kordofani’s Goodbye Julia, the first Sudanese film ever to make the festival’s official selection; Senegalese filmmaker Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s feature debut Banel & Adama; and Congolese-Belgian rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji’s Omen.  Banel & Adama competed for the  Palme d’Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, with the filmmaker Baloji becoming the second ever Black film director to compete for the Palme d’Or (after Franco-Senegalese director Mati Diop whose film Atlantics got featured four years before). Last year, there was a slight increase in African participants as seven films from the continent premiered at the festival. This included Un Certain Regard selections, Somalian-born Mo Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise and Zambian-Welsh director and screenwriter, Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl; as well as Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch’s Everybody Loves Touda, Egyptian director Hala Elkoussy’s East of Noon, Egyptians Nada Riyadh and  Ayman El Amir’s Rafaat Einy ll Sama (The Brink of Madness), Algerian filmmaker Emma Benestan’s Animale, and Moroccan Hamich Benlarbi’s La Mer Au Loin (Across the Sea).

Nigeria, which is home to the most vibrant film industry in Africa, recently got her first real Cannes shot at the latest edition through the groundbreaking selection of Akinola Davies’s debut feature My Father’s Shadow, a film about a family reunion during the 1993 Nigerian election. The film will be available in the Un Certain Regard category, alongside Egyptian filmmaker Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away. Similarly, Eagles of the Republic, directed by Swedish-Egyptian filmmaker Tarik Saleh, will compete for the Palme d’Or at the occasion. All of these feats contribute to the growing global relevance of African cinema—whetting the ground for upscaling in quality, megadollar investments, and cross-continental Afrocentric cinema collaborations.