NOT ONE CINEMA
African cinema is not one cinema. That statement is necessary because the opposite assumption - that African film is a single tradition, probably defined by the internationally distributed art house films that reach European festival circuits - produces a drastically incomplete picture. Africa has fifty-four countries, multiple colonial linguistic inheritances (French, English, Portuguese, Arabic, plus hundreds of African languages used in production), multiple distinct industrial structures, and multiple audiences for whom different kinds of films are made. The guide below is a map, not an exhaustive survey.
NOLLYWOOD - THE LARGEST FILM INDUSTRY IN AFRICA
Nollywood - the Nigerian film industry based primarily in Lagos - is by volume the second-largest film industry in the world after Indian cinema. It produces approximately 2,500 films per year, distributed primarily through physical media (DVD, later digital download) and aimed at Nigerian and diaspora audiences. Nollywood is not the same kind of cinema as the West African art house tradition, and conflating the two produces misreadings of both.
Nollywood's formal register is melodramatic, fast-paced, and built for an audience whose relationship to cinema differs from the European art cinema tradition. The films deal with Nollywood's specific concerns - Pentecostal Christianity, family obligation, the specific social architecture of contemporary Lagos, corruption, aspiration - in a formal mode that is commercial cinema working on its own terms rather than aspiring to the festival circuit.
The contemporary Nollywood that is reaching international streaming platforms (Netflix, Amazon Prime) represents a specific tier of the industry - the more expensive productions aimed at international distribution - rather than the mainstream of the industry. Worth watching: Lionheart (Genevieve Nnaji, 2018, the first Netflix original from Nigeria), Citation (Kunle Afolayan, 2020).
THE WEST AFRICAN ART CINEMA TRADITION
The West African art cinema tradition - primarily Senegalese, Malian, and Burkinabè - is the tradition most represented on international festival circuits and most accessible through MUBI. This tradition developed from the late 1960s onward, largely through the infrastructure of FESPACO (the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, the world's largest African film festival) and French co-production funding.
Ousmane Sembène (Senegal, 1923–2007) is the foundational figure - the 'father of African cinema.' Moolaadé (2004) is the correct entry point: a film about female genital mutilation in a Sahelian village, made with the formal directness of someone who wants the argument to be heard. Black Girl (1966) is the formal origin - the first sub-Saharan African feature film by a Black African director, shot in French with Senegalese characters in Dakar and France. The formal achievement and the political argument are inseparable.
Souleymane Cissé (Mali, b. 1940): Yeelen (1987, Cannes Jury Prize) - a Bambara sorcerer's son in a mythological Mali. The most formally beautiful film in the West African tradition and the one most directly engaging with pre-colonial African myth rather than with colonialism as the primary subject.
Djibril Diop Mambéty (Senegal, 1945–1998): Touki Bouki (1973) - a young couple trying to escape to France. Made the same year as Xala by Sembène, formally more radical - the editing is influenced by the French New Wave in a way that's explicitly in conversation with the colonial cinematic inheritance rather than simply adopting it. The most formally innovative film in the tradition.
NORTH AFRICAN CINEMA
North African cinema - primarily Moroccan, Egyptian, Tunisian, and Algerian - occupies a different relationship to the European festival circuit than the West African tradition. Egyptian cinema is the largest commercial film industry in the Arab world and has been since the 1930s. Moroccan cinema has developed a strong festival presence in recent years, with Nabil Ayouch (Much Loved, 2015; Razzia, 2017) the most internationally visible figure.
Mohamed Kordofani's Goodbye Julia (Sudan, 2023) - the first Sudanese film to premiere at Cannes - is the most recent significant entry point to North and East African cinema on the international circuit. The Tunisian art cinema tradition has produced Abdellatif Kechiche (Blue Is the Warmest Colour, though a French production), whose Mia madre (2009) is the most formally accomplished entry from that tradition.
WHERE TO ACCESS AFRICAN CINEMA IN THE UK
MUBI has made a specific commitment to African cinema curation and carries the most complete accessible archive of the tradition in the UK. BFI Player carries some titles. BFI Southbank runs regular African cinema retrospective programmes and is the best place to see films not available on streaming platforms.
FESPACO - the Ouagadougou festival - is the primary source for discovering the current state of the tradition. The BFI London Film Festival's Strand programme consistently includes African cinema alongside the European and Asian competition titles. The Africa in Motion festival in Edinburgh and Glasgow is the UK's most comprehensive dedicated African cinema festival.
Nollywood is not the same kind of cinema as the West African art house tradition, and conflating the two produces misreadings of both.