African Filmmakers Who Made Waves at 2025 Cannes Film Festival

Africans at Cannes, also known as Festival de Cannes 2025, stepped into the spotlight with renewed energy and powerful storytelling. The 2025 Cannes Film Festival is following an impressive run in 2024, with over 20 African films premiering and notable wins like Vote True by Nigeria’s Toyin Elebe,

This year’s festival, running through May 24, featured six African films spanning genres from historical fiction to crime thrillers, with stories rooted in cities like Lagos, Tunis, Cairo, and Yaoundé. These films tackle themes of justice, migration, memory, and belonging, amplifying voices often left unheard.

Beyond the screen, Africa’s presence is also felt among the juries, with Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, and Marc Zinga taking on key roles.

Meanwhile, the Cannes Film Market hosted the premiere of Osamede by Nigerian director James Omokwe at the Pavillon Afriques. In a landmark move, Woof Studios Africa will lead a delegation of top creators to the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, showcasing the continent’s vibrant creative economy on a global platform.

African Filmmakers at Festival de Cannes 2025 Take the Spotlight

The 2025 Cannes Film Festival gave us an affirmation that African film is on the rise and will continue to do so. This year’s Africans at Cannes 2025 lineup boldly included the voices of African filmmakers in everything from gripping thrillers and political drama to poignant tales of migration and family. 

Africans attending Cannes 2025 demonstrate how filmmakers from all over the continent are pushing the boundaries and bringing their honest, daring, and poignant films to audiences around the world. 

An overview of the African films chosen this year, categorized by their official Cannes categories, may be seen below.

In Competition 

My Father’s Shadow Directed by British-Nigerian Akinola Davies Jr

As Nigeria’s first-ever submission to the Cannes main competition, this movie created history. The drama, which is set in Lagos during the postponed 1993 presidential election, centers on two brothers who spend a day together as mayhem breaks out in the city. The movie examines politics, family, and power during a national crisis while fusing fiction with personal memories.

Un Certain Regard films 

Promised the Sky Directed by Franco-Tunisian Erige Sehiri: 

This film served as the opening of the Un Certain Regard category. In it, two young ladies and a shipwreck survivor are given refuge by Marie, an Ivorian priest in Tunisia. The film focuses on identity, optimism, and human connection while highlighting the increasing tension that sub-Saharan African migrants encounter in North Africa.

Aisha Can’t Fly Away, Directed by Egyptian Morad Mostafa: 

Set in a working-class area of Cairo, this film follows Aisha, a Somali caregiver living in a rough neighborhood full of migrants. She faces constant threats from violence, poverty, and neglect. Based on the director’s real-life experience, the story shines a light on what it means to survive in a place that doesn’t always care.

Directors’ Fortnight 

Indomptables Directed by French-Cameroonian Thomas Ngijol: 

The setting of this gripping thriller is Yaoundé, Cameroon. It centers on a police commissioner who is looking into the death of one of his own. The movie addresses complex topics including justice, trust, and corruption. The fact that Ngijol both directed and starred in the movie demonstrates Cameroonian cinema’s power on the international scene.

Critics’ Week 

L’mina Directed by French-Moroccan Randa Maroufi

Long after the authorities closed the illegal coal pits, residents in the Moroccan mining village of Jerada continue to put their lives in danger to work in them. In the short film L’mina, actual locals perform scenarios from their own lives, providing an unvarnished and honest look at dignity, community, and survival. 

Africans at Cannes 2025: ACID Selection 

Life After Siham Directed by Franco-Egyptian Namir Abdel Messeeh

The filmmaker of this touching documentary lost his mother. He revisits his life in France and Egypt through personal memories and old home recordings. The movie explores identity, loss, and the burdens we bear from past generations. 

From Nigeria and Egypt to Tunisia, Cameroon, and Morocco, Africans at Cannes 2025 have delivered some of the most emotional, thought-provoking, and bold films of the festival. These stories are not just about local issues; they speak to the world, proving that African cinema is thriving and ready for the global stage.

Whether through powerful documentaries or gripping dramas, African filmmakers are showing that the continent doesn’t need to wait for permission to be seen. The talent, vision, and voices are already here, and the world is finally paying attention. 

Would you like to see more Africans Filmmakers work at the Cannes Film Festival? Share your thoughts in the comments