Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, (born in 1961 in Abéché, Chad) is a Chadian film director. Though living in France since the 80s, he remains his country's best known and most awarded filmmaker, recognized for his films set and filmed in Chad. Earlier in his career his films tended to focus on the impact of the country’s multiple civil wars, but since the end of the last one in 2010, Haroun has increasingly turned his attention to other social concerns.
After directing several shorts in the 90s, Haroun released his first feature film Bye Bye Africa (1999), which he wrote, directed, and starred in, and is Chad's first feature film. Other notable films followed, including:
Haroun's most recent film Lingui, The Sacred Bonds (2021) a female-centered drama, deals with the fallout facing a mother and daughter when the 15-year old becomes pregnant in a country where abortion is both illegal and considered immoral.
Featured Industry Article
C.J. Obasi, winner of the 2023 Paulin Soumanou Vieyra award
The African Federation of Film Critics (AFFC, French: Fédération africaine de la critique cinématographique, FACC) is a panafricanist federation of film critics associations and individuals from Africa and the diaspora. It was founded in 2004 and comprises 43 associations and 456 editors and is headquartered in Dakar, Senegal.
As part of its activities in support of its mission to strengthen African film criticism and global awareness of African cinema, AFFC curates Africiné, a database of African films, personalities, reviews, and other film-related information.
In partnership with various film festivals, it also confers the Paulin Soumanou Vieyra African Critics Prize, named after the first black African film critic, to honor an exceptional emerging film talent. In 2023, a jury of five film critics awarded the prize to C.J. Obasi at FESPACO for his supernatural fantasy filmMami Wata.
Notable This Month
Meg Otanwa, 2024 AMAA nominee for Best Actress for her role in The Weekend The 2024 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) announced the nominees for its 20th edition, taking place on the 2nd of November in Lagos, Nigeria. Leading the nominations is Daniel Oriahi’s psychological thriller The Weekend with 16 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, and Achievement in Cinematography. The Queenstown Kings, a South African sports film follows with 15 nominations, also vying for Best Film, Best Director, and Cinematography. This is Lagos,Kenneth Gyang’s crime drama; Under The Hanging Tree, a supernatural film noir from Namibia; and Obi Emelonye's Out of Breath, a Nigerian historical drama, each received 9 nominations
The Royal African Society is hosting its annual Film Africa festival in London from 25th October - 3rd November. Mati Diop’s award-winning documentary Dahomey, and Black Tea, a romantic drama by Abderrahmane Sissako will open and close the festival respectively. Film Africa 2024 will also showcase a lineup of features, documentaries, and shorts and award the Baobab Award for Best Short Film and the Audience Award for Best Feature Film.
The 28th edition of the Écrans Noirs Festival takes place in Yaoundé, Cameroon from October 19 to 26. A total of 139 films, series, and web series have been selected to screen. Among the films being screened are Enah Johnscot’s Half Heaven; Achille Brice’s thriller Smiling Masks and The Mystery of Waza, an archaeological adventure animation by award-winning director Claye Edou.
Rosemary Zimu of HappinesIs
Happiness Is, the third installment of the female-centered Happiness is a Four-letter Word franchise, premieres on Netflix on October 18. It’s the follow-up to Happiness Ever After, which was commissioned by and premiered on Netflix in 2021and the sequel to the original 2019 Happiness is Four-letter film, a major box office hit in South African cinemas.
Naima Lamcharki, (b 11 July 1943) one of Morocco’s best-known actresses whose career spanned film, television, and theater, died on October 5th. Among her most recognized performances was in the comedy megahit In Search of My Wife's Husband (1993), for which she won the prize for Best Female Lead at Morocco’s National Film Festival.
The film takes place in contemporary Madagascar and follows Kwame, a young sapphire miner struggling to make a living. Returning to his hometown due to an unexpected turn of events, he finds himself confronted with the rampant corruption plaguing Madagascar and is torn between making easy money and keeping his integrity —mirroring a country that is straddling a painful past and hopeful resurgence.
Reviews have been positive. CineEuropa’s critic wrote:
"Attempting to capture the soul of Madagascar (its ancestral rites) and to make connections between eras so as to honour the island’s enduring spirit of resistance and denounce the collective chaos orchestrated to benefit the few, Luck Razanajaona delivers an engaged and highly enlightening film, making clever use of radio, songs and photos to fuel a very simple story."
Maïmouna Doucouré spent nearly 18 months researching studies on how children are exposed to adult content and sexualised images on social media for Cuties, her award-winning 2020 feature directorial debut. The story centers on a Senegalese-French girl with a traditional Muslim upbringing who is caught between her family’s traditional values and contemporary western culture when she joins a twerking dance group.
Barakat (2020), a South African family drama film directed by Amy Jephta is the first Afrikaans-language Muslim feature film produced in South Africa. The story centers around the family drama that ensues when an aging, widowed matriarch, brings together her fractured, dysfunctional family over Eid-al-Fitr in order to introduce her new romantic partner. The film received multiple nominations and awards and was South Africa's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards.
Birthdays
Michaela Coel in 2021Michaela Coel (born 1 October 1987) is a British-Ghanaian actress, filmmaker and poet. She is best known for creating and starring in the sitcom Chewing Gum (2015–2017) and the comedy-drama series I May Destroy You (2020). For both series, she won BAFTA awards for Best Actress. She starred in the series Black Earth Rising (2018) in which she plays a Rwandan-born British legal investigator seeking truth and justice surrounding the Rwandan genocide. Her next TV series to start filming in 2025, will see Coel write, star in and executive produce First Day On Earth, a TV series about a British-Ghanaian novelist reconnecting with her father and her country of heritage.
Doreen Mirembe (born 4 October 1987), is a Ugandan actress, filmmaker, and producer. She is known for Damile, a popular TV series now in its second season. The series garnered Miremebe the 2024 Uganda Film Festival Best Actress award in a Drama Series and Best Drama Series. She also wrote, produced and starred in Kafa Coh (2022) a political thriller starring Michael Wawuyo Sr. and Mariam Ndagire, and A Dog Story (2015) a short story about the relationship between a kidnapped woman and her abductor. The film was critically well-received and won both Mirembe and Wawuyo awards for Best Actress and Best Actor at the Pearl International Film Festival.
Marc Zinga (born 21 October 1984) is an award-winning Congolese-Belgian actor, singer and filmmaker. He first achieved wide acclaim in May Allah Bless France! (2014), a biographical film about and directed by hip hop musician Abd al Malik, and for which he was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor. Other notable roles followed in the sports dramedy Scouting for Zebras; TheMercy of the Jungle (Best Actor winner at FESPACO 2019) and Omen, a 2023 film directed by Belgian-Congolese rapper Baloji in his feature film debut. Omen garnered Zinga his 4th Magritte nomination.
Katoucha Niane (23 October 1960 – 2 February 2008) was a Guineanmodel, activist and author. Nicknamed "The Peul Princess" (in reference to her ethnic Fula background), she was known as the muse of Yves Saint Laurent during the 1980s. She starred in just one film, Ramata (2007) directed by Léandre-Alain Baker, in which she played the title role of a married Senegalese woman who, aged 50, falls in love with a much younger man.
Mutiganda wa Nkunda (born 18 October, 1989) is a Rwandan screenwriter, director and producer. After several years of scripting and directing popular Rwandan television series, he directed his first feature film, Nameless, in 2021, which won the prize for Best Screenplay at FESPACO that same year. In 2020 he produced A Taste of our Land directed by Yuhi Amuli which won that year's awards for Best First Feature Narrative at the PanAfrican Film Festival and Best First Feature Film by a Director at the Africa Movie Academy Awards.
Quote
Danai Gurira in 2022
“Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools for changing perception of Africa and allowing a complex, rich self exploration of its history and unique culture. Its boundless possibilities to give Africa it’s own voice is what brought me to writing and acting."
Danai Gurira, Actress, Playwright, Activist, and Artistic Director of Almasi Collaborative Arts
Things You Can Do
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Featured Film Score
Nuba Mountains, Southern Sudan
Beats of the Antonov (2014) is a Sudanese-South African documentary film directed by Sudanese filmmakerHajooj Kuka. The film documents the Sudan–SRF conflict in the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains regions, focusing in particular on the role of music in helping the affected communities to sustain themselves culturally and spiritually in the face of the ongoing conflict.
The film has been widely praised by critics and viewers alike, and won the People's Choice Award for Best Documentary at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, among other numerous awards.
Alsarah in 2016
Alsarah, a Sudanese-American singer, songwriter (of Alsarah & The Nubatones), and ethnomusicologist, curated and gathered field-recordings from the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains people during the filming as part of the soundtrack. Additional recordings were provided courtesy of DJ Mosquito of the Community Radio Station in Kauda.
Hajooj said this on the role of music in his film:
Music was the main character. We use music to show what culture is, to show the war and to explain the war; to explain why people are fighting and to show how really winning is keeping your culture. The best way to know someone’s culture is through dance and music. To me that is a major part of our lives.
Love Unto Grave is one of the best known novels in Ethiopia and is considered a classic of Ethiopian literature. The novel gained popularity largely due to its narration on Ethiopian radio during the Derg regime. The story revolves around the doomed love affair between Bezabeh, a nobleman, and Seble, a young woman of a lower social class. The novel also takes aim at the injunctions of the Church, class prejudices and the hardships and inequities faced by the peasantry.
The first of four commissioned seasons, each consisting of 12 episodes, began airing on September 11, 2024, to coincide with the Ethiopian New Year celebrations.
In preparation of filming the director said:
"We are trying to understand the book before executing it; there are more than 70 studies done on Fikir Eske Mekabir, and we are trying to read and understand each perspective. We want to know how people perceive it, and in the end, we want to go out with our own voice. It needs dedication and confidence."
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, (born in 1961 in Abéché, Chad) is a Chadian film director. Though living in France since the 80s, he remains his country's best known and most awarded filmmaker, recognized for his films set and filmed in Chad. Earlier in his career his films tended to focus on the impact of the country’s multiple civil wars, but since the end of the last one in 2010, Haroun has increasingly turned his attention to other social concerns.
The 2024 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) announced the nominees for its 20th edition, taking place on the 2nd of November in Lagos, Nigeria. Leading the nominations is Daniel Oriahi’s psychological thriller The Weekend with 16 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, and Achievement in Cinematography. The Queenstown Kings, a South African sports film follows with 15 nominations, also vying for Best Film, Best Director, and Cinematography. This is Lagos, Kenneth Gyang’s crime drama; Under The Hanging Tree, a supernatural film noir from Namibia; and Obi Emelonye's Out of Breath, a Nigerian historical drama, each received 9 nominations
British Zambian Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl took top honors at the 20th Zurich Film Festival on October 12, winning the Golden Eye for best feature film. A follow up feature to Nyoni's acclaimed 2017 debut I Am Not A Witch, the film is a family comedy drama about sexual abuse set in Lusaka, Zambia.
The 28th edition of the Écrans Noirs Festival takes place in Yaoundé, Cameroon from October 19 to 26. A total of 139 films, series, and web series have been selected to screen. Among the films being screened are Enah Johnscot’s Half Heaven; Achille Brice’s thriller Smiling Masks and The Mystery of Waza, an archaeological adventure animation by award-winning director Claye Edou.
Happiness Is, the third installment of the female-centered Happiness is a Four-letter Word franchise, premieres on Netflix on October 18. It’s the follow-up to Happiness Ever After, which was commissioned by and premiered on Netflix in 2021and the sequel to the original 2019 Happiness is Four-letter film, a major box office hit in South African cinemas.
Naima Lamcharki, (b 11 July 1943) one of Morocco’s best-known actresses whose career spanned film, television, and theater, died on October 5th. Among her most recognized performances was in the comedy megahit In Search of My Wife's Husband (1993), for which she won the prize for Best Female Lead at Morocco’s National Film Festival.
Hijack '93, a Nollywood Netflix film that drops on October 25, is a fictional retelling of the real-life hijacking of a Nigerian Airways flight in 1993 by a group of Nigerian teenagers. The film’s lineup of Nollywood actors includes Bob Manuel, John Dumelo, Sharon Ooja, Nancy Isime, Jemima Osunde, and Efa Iwara,
Maïmouna Doucouré spent nearly 18 months researching studies on how children are exposed to adult content and sexualised images on social media for Cuties, her award-winning 2020 feature directorial debut. The story centers on a Senegalese-French girl with a traditional Muslim upbringing who is caught between her family’s traditional values and contemporary western culture when she joins a twerking dance group.
The short comedy drama, Made In Mauritius (2009), was the first ever Mauritian film to be selected as part of Official Selection at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Directed by Mauritian director David Constantin, the 7-minute film can be watched for free on Viddsee.
Salah Abu Seif (May 10, 1915 – June 23, 1996) was one of the most famous Egyptian film directors, and is considered to be the godfather of Neorealist cinema in Egyptian cinema. Many of the 41 films he directed are considered Egyptian classics; eight of them rank in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s list of 100 Greatest Egyptian Films, the most of any director.
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Michaela Coel (born 1 October 1987) is a British-Ghanaian actress, filmmaker and poet. She is best known for creating and starring in the sitcom Chewing Gum (2015–2017) and the comedy-drama series I May Destroy You (2020). For both series, she won BAFTA awards for Best Actress. She starred in the series Black Earth Rising (2018) in which she plays a Rwandan-born British legal investigator seeking truth and justice surrounding the Rwandan genocide. Her next TV series to start filming in 2025, will see Coel write, star in and executive produce First Day On Earth, a TV series about a British-Ghanaian novelist reconnecting with her father and her country of heritage.
Doreen Mirembe (born 4 October 1987), is a Ugandan actress, filmmaker, and producer. She is known for Damile, a popular TV series now in its second season. The series garnered Miremebe the 2024 Uganda Film Festival Best Actress award in a Drama Series and Best Drama Series. She also wrote, produced and starred in Kafa Coh (2022) a political thriller starring Michael Wawuyo Sr. and Mariam Ndagire, and A Dog Story (2015) a short story about the relationship between a kidnapped woman and her abductor. The film was critically well-received and won both Mirembe and Wawuyo awards for Best Actress and Best Actor at the Pearl International Film Festival.
Merzak Allouache (born 6 October 1940) is an Algerian film director and screenwriter and considered one of his country's most influential filmmakers. He first gained international acclaim with Omar Gatlato (1976), a seminal film that set a new a vocabulary for post-indepence Algerian filmmaking. Other notable films include Normal! (2011) winner of Best Film at the 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival; The Repentant (2012) about a former djihadist struggling to atone for his crime; and Salut cousin! (1996) which was Algeria's submission to the 69th Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.
Marc Zinga (born 21 October 1984) is an award-winning Congolese-Belgian actor, singer and filmmaker. He first achieved wide acclaim in May Allah Bless France! (2014), a biographical film about and directed by hip hop musician Abd al Malik, and for which he was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor. Other notable roles followed in the sports dramedy Scouting for Zebras; The Mercy of the Jungle (Best Actor winner at FESPACO 2019) and Omen, a 2023 film directed by Belgian-Congolese rapper Baloji in his feature film debut. Omen garnered Zinga his 4th Magritte nomination.
Katoucha Niane (23 October 1960 – 2 February 2008) was a Guinean model, activist and author. Nicknamed "The Peul Princess" (in reference to her ethnic Fula background), she was known as the muse of Yves Saint Laurent during the 1980s. She starred in just one film, Ramata (2007) directed by Léandre-Alain Baker, in which she played the title role of a married Senegalese woman who, aged 50, falls in love with a much younger man.
Mutiganda wa Nkunda (born 18 October, 1989) is a Rwandan screenwriter, director and producer. After several years of scripting and directing popular Rwandan television series, he directed his first feature film, Nameless, in 2021, which won the prize for Best Screenplay at FESPACO that same year. In 2020 he produced A Taste of our Land directed by Yuhi Amuli which won that year's awards for Best First Feature Narrative at the PanAfrican Film Festival and Best First Feature Film by a Director at the Africa Movie Academy Awards.
Danai Gurira, Actress, Playwright, Activist, and Artistic Director of Almasi Collaborative Arts
Beats of the Antonov (2014) is a Sudanese-South African documentary film directed by Sudanese filmmaker Hajooj Kuka. The film documents the Sudan–SRF conflict in the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains regions, focusing in particular on the role of music in helping the affected communities to sustain themselves culturally and spiritually in the face of the ongoing conflict.
Love Unto Grave (Amharic: ፍቅር እስከ መቃብር; Fikir Eske Mekabir) (2024) is an Ethiopian television drama series directed and co-written by Sewmehon Yismaw based on the 1968 novel of the same name by Haddis Alemayehu.
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