Activist Nkosikhona Swartbooi leads a protest in the documentary Mother City.
Screengrab/Mother City
The filmmakers followed the Reclaim the City campaign for six years to document their struggle for accommodation in Cape Town’s elite ‘city bowl’.
The cast of Four Daughters features both real characters and actors.
Four Daughters/Chrysaor
The first Arab woman nominated for two Oscars, Kaouther Ben Hania is a visionary and a feminist.
Bobi Wine stands on a motorbike as he travels Uganda campaigning for the opposition.
Courtesy National Geographic
An emotional roller coaster, the film tracks the pop star’s political battle up close and personal.
The film shone a spotlight on the representation of black people and women.
© 2022 Marvel
There’s a big difference between how Hollywood audiences view Black Panther and how African audiences do.
The Nigerian hit film tackles social issues through an action plot.
Screengrab/Anakle Films/Netflix/YouTube
High action and outspoken politics meet digital-first thinking and a global hit is made.
Nakhane (front) stars in Inxeba (The Wound), a South African film about gay love at an initiation school.
Inxeba/Urucu Media
Despite harsh laws, a growing number of African countries are representing queer life in their cinema.
Mali-born director Souleymane Cissé is best known for his film Yeelen.
Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images for Dubai International Film Festival
The director will receive the Carrosse d'Or, awarded to cinema pioneers, at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May.
Activist and theatre director Nancy Diuguid, left, with partner and film-maker Melanie Chait.
Melanie Chait/Dance Me to the End of Time
On at Cape Town Pride, Melanie Chait’s documentary is about her life partner Nancy Diuguid.
Photo 12/Alamy
A pioneer of cinema, his films established a truly African cinema for Africans.
Famed director Ousmane Sembène (centre, with trademark pipe) and a group of extras on set.
Michel Renaudeau/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Born 100 years ago this year, Africa’s most legendary filmmaker - and a prolific novelist -remains relevant through his beautifully crafted political works.
Image courtesy Ilze Kitshoff/Sony Pictures Entertainment
Hollywood undermines Africa’s struggles, creating a false impression of the continent to please western viewers.
Still from the film Sons of the Sea.
Indigenous Film Distribution
Woven throughout the backstories of these characters is the loss of loved ones, lack of resources and the desperation to get out of economic hardship.
Dolly Rathebe (centre) in detail of the album cover for Dolly Rathebe & Elite Swingsters.
Gallo Music Publishing
Her celebration of black life, black beauty and black humanity through her films and music was subversive.
A demonstration in memory of Dulcie September, Paris 1988.
Georges Merillon/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
The 1988 murder of the exiled ANC leader has never been solved – but by raising awareness and targeting core viewers, the film aims to help change that.
Detail from a poster for the romantic comedy Happiness is a Four-Letter Word.
© Junaid Ahmed/Happiness is a Four-Letter Word
The rise of the black romantic comedy in South Africa dovetailed perfectly with the advent of streaming services - creating a box office phenomenon.
Tom Foster/Netflix
A tide of ‘the feels’ buoyed the underdog documentary to an Oscar win – but the local industry will need to focus on where international gains are most needed.
Children watching an old Hindi film at a video centre in Tamale in Ghana in 2016.
Katie Young
Depictions of Indian life in cinema and soap operas have found particular affinity with communities in Northern Ghana.
Mary Twala Mhlongo is the star of This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection.
Screengrab/Courtesy Urucu Media
Lesotho’s first-ever entry at the Oscars is a powerful story based on true-to-life events in which a village is to be forcibly evicted to make way for a new dam.
Big World Cinema/Afrobubblegum
It wasn’t just the film Rafiki - a joyful lesbian love story - but also the experience of going to watch it after it was unbanned that created a new kind of freedom.
Alon Skuy/Sunday Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The artist’s body of work, through its very public focus on queer masculinity, offers alternative ways of thinking about what being a man is.