Press release
UNESCO highlights African cinema at the 75th Cannes Film Festival
Moderated by journalist Hortense Assaga, the round-table will offer an opportunity for international actors to highlight the African film industry and explore key challenges and concrete initiatives that contribute to addressing them, especially those designed for youth and for the preservation of African Film heritage.
The event will be opened by Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.
Speakers scheduled to take part
- Emira Ben Saad, General Coordinator of the SENTOO Project, National Center for Cinema and Image (CNCI), Tunisia
- Cecilia Cenciarelli, General Coordinator of the African Film Heritage Project, The Film Foundation of Martin Scorsese
- Naomi Kawase, Film Director and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for cultural and creative industries
- Laza, Film Director and President of the Pan‑African Alliance of Screenwriters and Directors (APASER)
- Alex Moussa Sawadogo, Delegate General of the Pan African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO)
The round-table will notably be informed by UNESCO’s recent report, The Film Industry in Africa: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities for Growth, a ground breaking analysis of data on the film and audiovisual industries of 54 African countries. The report argues that strategic investments and policy reforms could help the African film industry develop rapidly: with benefits for local cultural life, for the promotion of the continent's rich culture worldwide and for the economy. The publication shows that the African film industry could potentially quadruple the number of jobs in the sector from 5 million people to 20 million.
Notable initiatives include the partnership between UNESCO and Netflix, Reinvented African folk tales, the UNESCO/Nara residency for young African female filmmakers, supervised by internationally acclaimed film director Naomi Kawase, and the African Film Heritage Project (AFHP), a joint initiative between the Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, Cineteca di Bologna, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) and UNESCO.
The event is organized as part of UNESCO’s enduring commitment to promoting African cinema through events such as the Pan African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO) in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), the Carthage film festival (Tunisia) and the Luxor African Film Festival (Egypt). It is organized with the support of the Government of the People's Republic of China.
From 11am to 12pm – Marina stage (1st floor, Riviera building, behind the Palais des Festivals). Free admission upon presentation of the Marché du Film badge.
More information available here
Streaming of the panel discussion here
Media contact: Thomas Mallard, +33 1 45 68 22 93