No Nigerian Filmmaker is Among the Best and Greatest African Filmmakers

No Nigerian Filmmaker is Among the Best and Greatest African Filmmakers

I am currently doing research on my article on "African Cinema in the Eyes of the World". 

No Nigerian filmmaker is among the best and greatest filmmakers in African Cinema since 1925 to date. None of them is on the list of the to 10 African Filmmakers.

Only Newton Aduaka's multiple award winning film,"Ezra" that won the most prestigious award of the "Étalon d'or de Yennenga" (Golden Stallion of Yennenga) at the 2007 Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou or FESPACO) (held biennially in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. "Ezra" also other sspecial awards; including the Oumarou Ganda Prize, given for the best first film, and the Paul Robeson Prize for the best film by a director of the African diaspora named in honour of the major 20th-century American actor, singer and civil rights activist in the United States.) and C.J Obasi's cinematic masterpiece, "Mami Wata", the  2023 sci-fi drama based on the mythology of Nigerian marine spirits  are included in the best 100 African films so far.

"Mami Wata"'s  cinematographer Lílis Soares won the Special Jury Prize in the World Dramatic Competition and won three awards at FESPACO - Prix de la Critique Paulin S. Vieyra (African Critics Award), Meilleure Image (Cinematography Award) and Meilleur Décor (Set Design Award).

The first African film to win international recognition was Sembène Ousmane's "La Noire de (Black Girl). It won the Prix Jean Vigo in 1966. Ousmane is recognized as the Father of African Cinema.

Only one African film has won the highly coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, "Chronicles of the Years of Fire" (1975) by Algerian director Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina. 

Then Mati Diop of Senegal became the only African woman to win the Grand Prix, the second-most prestigious award, for her film "Atlantics" in 2019.

"Tsotsi", a South African film is the first African film to win  the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006 actually,  the first non-French language film from Africa to achieve this honor.  It was directed by Gavin Hood, based on a novel by Athol Fugard.

The first African film to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival was "U-Carmen eKhayelitsha", a South African drama directed by Mark Dornford-May, in 2005.

"Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop won the Golden Bear at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in 2024, the first Black filmmaker to win the award. 

No African films has won the Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award. However, "Mother, Mother" by Somalian filmmaker K'naan Warsame did receive the FIPRESCI Jury Award in 2024.

The Golden Globes celebrated a century of Egyptian Cinema in 2021. I have been working on "A Century of Nigerian Cinema: from Palaver To Nollywood - 1926-2026".

- by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series, the first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

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#nigeria
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#diop
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Asghar Farhadi wins first Golden Bear at the 61st Berlinale

The accomplished Iranian screenwriter and film director Asghar Farhadi’s captivating drama Nader and Simin: A Separation won the Golden Bear for the Best Film at the 61st Berlin Film Festival and was elated to receive his coveted prize at the closing ceremony on Saturday February 19, 2011. This must really be fulfilling for him after winning the Silver Bear for Best Director for his film About Elly in 2009. This is the first time an Iranian film has won the Golden Bear. The male and female actors of "Nader and Simin, A Separation" were honored each with a Silver Bear for their performance.


Asghar Farhadi lifting up his Golden Bear at the 61st Berlinale.


The film is about a middle-class couple Nader and Simin married for fifteen years and live with their eleven-year-old daughter Termeh in Tehran. The family belong to the urban upper middle-class and the couple are on the verge of separation. Simin wants to leave the country with her husband and daughter, as she does not want Termeh to grow up under the prevailing conditions. Her desire is not shared by the stubborn Nader. He has concerns for his father, who lives with the family and suffers from Alzheimer's disease. When Nader decides to stay in Iran, Simin files for a divorce.




Bela Tarr took home the Jury Grand Prix of the Silver Bear for being the runner-up for his film "The Turin Horse".

The other winners emerged in the following order:


Silver Bear - Best Director
Ulrich Köhler
for Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness)


Silver Bear - Best Actress
to the actress-ensemble in
Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation)
by Asghar Farhadi

Silver Bear - Best Actor
to the actor-ensemble in
Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (Nader And Simin, A Separation)
by Asghar Farhadi

Silver Bear - Outstanding Artistic Achievement
Wojciech Staron for the camera in
El premio (The Prize)
by Paula Markovitch

ex aequo

Barbara Enriquez for the production design in
El premio (The Prize)
by Paula Markovitch

Silver Bear - Best Script
Joshua Marston and Andamion Murataj for
The Forgiveness Of Blood (The Forgiveness Of Blood)
by Joshua Marston

Alfred Bauer Prize
Awarded in memory of the Festival founder, for a work of particular innovation.

Wer wenn nicht wir (If Not Us, Who)
by Andres Veiel

Click here for more details.