Category: The Latest

Six feature projects + six producers selected for the first edition of Locarno’s new Africa-focused cycle (2025–2028). Selected Projects + Teams:• “Les Bilokos” — Erickey Bahati & Giresse Kassonga (DR Congo)• “Journal Intime d’une Femme-Chèvre” (“Diary of a Goat Woman”) — Azata Soro & Nameita Lica Toure (Ivory Coast/Burkina Faso)• “The Fortunate” — Habtamu Gebrehiwot […]

Subscribers received this newsletter during the festival last month. What it says hasn’t changed: African film activity is real, ongoing, and resourceful, but fundamentally under-supported locally, operating largely within informal networks, through personal sacrifice and collective effort, with little institutional infrastructure to sustain it in the long term. The risk isn’t lack of creativity, ambition, […]

Netflix just signed its first regional distribution deal in Africa, by letting CANAL+ bundle its service across 24 countries—almost half the continent. With the MultiChoice acquisition nearing approval, CANAL+ may soon control both Netflix and Showmax distribution across much of Africa. What does it all mean? For CANAL+, MultiChoice, Showmax, Netflix, and African audiences. Audio […]

Prefer to listen? This newsletter is now available in AI-generated audio format. Twelve years into its journey, NollywoodWeek—co-founded by Serge Noukoué and Nadira Shakur—continues to hold space for African and diaspora cinema in one of the world’s most symbolically loaded cultural capitals. As one of the few Black-led film festivals in Paris—and one that does not […]

The Ongoing Search for *Authenticity* in African Cinematic Storytelling. A tribute to the Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, the literary and political force, who passed away yesterday, May 28, 2025, at the age of 87. A key voice in the dialogue around the use of African languages in literature, he steadfastly critiqued African literature’s domination by European […]

Prefer to listen? This newsletter is now available in an AI-generated audio format. (11 minutes) Akinola Davies Jnr’s “My Father’s Shadow” is less a narrative in the traditional sense and more an atmospheric record of a particular place, time, and mood: Lagos, June 1993, when Nigeria thought it would elect a new democratic president. The film is […]

Three official Cannes awards this year went to African / diaspora films and performances: – “La Petite Dernière”: Best Actress (Nadia Melliti, Algeria), Competition – “O Riso e a Faca”: Best Actress (Cleo Diára, Cape Verde), Un Certain Regard – “My Father’s Shadow”: Caméra d’Or Special Mention, Akinola Davies Jr., Nigeria It’s one of the […]

Prefer to listen? This newsletter is now available in AI-generated audio format (12 minutes) After dispatching the April 5 newsletter, African Feature Films at Cannes (1946–2024): A Data-Driven Chronicle, I thought it would be a good idea to step back and spend more time on one detail I only mentioned in passing: the near-absence of African films […]

Four new dispatches: 📌 ONE – My Father’s Shadow (Review): The first Nigerian film in Cannes’ Official Selection. A hybrid memory of fatherhood, Lagos in 1993, and the absence that shapes it all. 📌 TWO – Six Hours of Informal Conversations: Ground-level intel from African and diaspora film industry professionals at Cannes—burnout and gaps in […]

Prefer to listen? Audio versions available for each newsletter dispatch. Localized pricing now available in Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Jamaica. 7-day free trial included. Subscribe at the link: https://akoroko.com/localpricing/