African Filmmaking Talent Thrives on a Global Stage as Market Stumbles and Business Resets With New Models, Challenges

Key Highlights

• This year’s Berlinale will see both Chadian auteur Mahamat-Saleh Haroun (“Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars”) and Silver Bear-winning French Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis (“Dao”) vying for the Golden Bear.
• Related Stories Elon Musk Says Christopher Nolan Has 'Lost His Integrity' With 'The Odyssey' If Lupita Nyong’o Is Playing Helen of Troy Elon Musk's X to Be Investigated by the EU Over Grok's Sexually Explicit Deepfakes Meanwhile, in the festival’s Panorama strand, Nigeria’s Olive Nwosu will screen her debut feature, “Lady,” which arrives in Berlin fresh off its prize-winning Sundance premiere, while South African rising talent Sandulela Asanda’s debut “Black Burns Fast” will have its international premiere in the Generation 14plus section.
• Popular on Variety The continent is abuzz with fresh talents and flush with new investment.
• Financial vehicles such as the African Export-Import Bank’s billion-dollar Africa Film Fund, Next Narrative Africa and HEVA Fund’s $40 million content creator initiative and a raft of other funding schemes have signaled a concerted effort — perhaps for the first time ever — to inject a steady stream of cash into the continent’s screen industries.
• But who’s buying?