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The first Nigerian film ever to screen in Official Selection at Cannes, this prizewinning debut feature from Akinola Davies Jr. is steeped in feeling and lyrical imagery. Bathing the father-son bond in a tender glow, this vibrant coming-of-age tale gathers up precious things amid political tumult.

The first feature from visionary Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty is simply a masterpiece. Winner of the international critics’ award at Cannes, the film’s extraordinary sound design, choppy associative editing, and cool central couple dreaming of escape continues to electrify and inspire.

Winner of the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlinale, Mati Diop’s dynamic film brings a dazzling sense of imagination to vital issues of self-determination and restitution. Amplifying voices from beyond the walls of international museums, this spellbinding work redefines the spaces of culture and art.

In this sumptuous masterwork from Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, the outskirts of N’Djamena shimmer with a vivacity that belies brutal prejudices. A powerful ode to the resilience of Chadian women in the face of patriarchal cruelty, this quietly radical drama has all the healing warmth of a mother’s embrace.

A whirlwind mix of DV tapes and 16mm stock, Haley Elizabeth Anderson’s singular debut transforms the concrete jungle of New York into a delicate tapestry of emotions. Charting the four seasons of a magnetic young woman unsettled by change, Tendaberry composes an urban symphony in the key of love.

In intricate dialogue with the present, Rosine Mbakam’s debut feature also joins hands with the past, feeling for traces of old rituals and lost souls. Over bowls of peeled cassava and pots of blackened fish, the Belgian-Cameroonian director honors the feminine labor that holds communities together.

Exploring Zambia’s little-known culture of “witch camps,” Rungano Nyoni’s debut masterfully combines comedy, tragedy, and mesmerizing visuals. A portrait of a defiant young girl, I Am Not a Witch mounts an acerbic critique of women’s oppression and corruption through tourism, media and superstition.

Chaos reigns in the riotously funny debut feature from visual artist Martine Syms. With a breakthrough performance from Diamond Stingily, this hallucinatory day-in-the-life of a Black artist is a rollicking satire of art-world pretensions and a rowdy portrayal of sex and drugs in the Internet age.

Rosine Mbakam’s most intimate documentary is formed exclusively from conversations between the filmmaker and her impassioned subject. With laughter and defiance, Delphine undoes her languorous bedroom pose of its art-historical, odalisque connotations, sharing secrets of faith, compromise, and love.

Bright fabrics interweave with misfortune in this tale of make-do and resilience. Taking the measurements of life in Cameroon with the instruments of fiction for the first time, Rosine Mbakam meshes the truth and amity of her empathetically crafted documentaries into poignant narrative cinema.

Whisking Africa into France with vigorous song and dance, A Dessert for Constance balances the sweet and sour of the immigrant experience. Brightening the bitterness of poverty and colonial paternalism, the secret ingredient of this uplifting film is zingy joy in everything, especially friendship.

A labor of love and fury, Med Hondo’s acerbic debut exposes the blatant racism of 1960s France, where African immigrants are forced to culturally assimilate yet kept economically enslaved. Shattering the egalitarian myths of Paris, this fiery classic attests to the radical possibilities of cinema.