The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced the BAFTA 2026 longlists — the 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards — the U.K. Oscars equivalent — today, January 9, 2026. British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr. appears on the longlist in Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for “My Father’s Shadow,” a United Kingdom–Nigeria production set in […]
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Berlinale Co-Production Market 2026 African projects
The Berlinale Co-Production Market has announced the 35 feature film projects selected for its 23rd edition, taking place February 14–17, 2026, during the Berlin International Film Festival. Out of the 35 selected, the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2026 African projects include: Sudan’s “Blue Card” and Cameroon’s “Claude” — representing two countries that are seeing a recent increase in […]
Academy Lists 201 Films for 2026 Oscars Best Picture: Africa-Linked Films Make the Cut
The Academy today released its official list of 201 films eligible for Best Picture consideration at the 2026 Oscars (ceremony March 15). To qualify, films had to complete a seven-day theatrical run in at least 10 of the top 50 U.S. markets within 45 days of their initial 2025 release, plus meet two of four […]
Ghana DStv Subscriptions Rose in a Year of Pricing Disputes, Piracy, and MultiChoice Ownership Change
Ghana DStv Subscriptions Rise After Pricing Dispute Ghana’s National Communications Authority issued a public statement concerning the dispute between the government and MultiChoice, parent company of DStv, the dominant pay-TV service. Earlier in 2025, the government challenged DStv’s repeated price increases, leading to an eventual restructuring of DStv’s packages on October 1: Ghanaian subscribers continued […]
African and African Diaspora Film Festivals Funded by Telefilm Canada for 2026
Telefilm Canada — the federal public agency that provides government funding and support for film and audiovisual projects — has released its funding decisions for film festivals in 2026. Telefilm allocated a combined $2.475 million across two funding programs that included these five African and African diaspora festivals for their 2026 editions: Public funding of […]
South Africa and Canada “Modernize” Co-Production Treaty Within Africa’s Uneven Treaty Landscape
A modernized audiovisual co-production treaty between Telefilm Canada and the Government of the Republic of South Africa entered into force on January 1, 2026. The treaty replaces the previous Canada–South Africa audiovisual co-production agreement signed on November 5, 1997, updating the legal and administrative structure governing joint film, television, and audiovisual productions between the two […]
Who Dominates the “Prestige” Conversation in African Cinema and Why: What 3 Years of Data Show
Moving beyond the macro picture captured in the November 24, 2025, Premium newsletter “Inside Akoroko’s 4,000-Document Dataset: A Three-Year Review of African Screen Activity,” I’ve been keyed in on asymmetric insights, as in less obvious relationships and extrapolations that describe more specific mechanics of African screen activity over the same time period. This report uses the same […]
10 Questions Shaping African Screen Culture in 2026 and Beyond
This article examines African screen culture 2026 using a comprehensive audit of more than 4,000 Akoroko newsletters, social media dispatches, and internal records tracking activity from late 2022 through December 2025. A continuation of my year-end deep dives, while also looking ahead to 2026 and beyond. These insights continue to be based on a comprehensive […]
The Veterans Still Directing: Africa’s Post-Independence Filmmakers in the 2020s
I document African filmmakers still working whose careers began in the post-independence years and who have continued directing completed, released work in the 2020s. Mozambican cinema is admittedly a blind spot, in part because its history is relatively short and its output has been limited since the “Kuxa Kanema” period under President Samora Machel following […]
10 Conversations African Cinema Is Having With Itself: Year-end Analysis
Continuing Akoroko’s year-end 2025 African cinema analysis series, what follows is a report that Premium subscribers received a week ago. It draws from a comprehensive audit of over 4,000 Akoroko documents, capturing African screen activity from late 2022 through December 2025. Much global industry trade coverage has looked at African cinema via the lens of […]