Portal:African cinema/Selected birthdays

Selected birthdays list

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Raja Amari (b. 4 April, 1971) is an award-winning Tunisian film director and scriptwriter whose works often center on female protagonists. Her best-known films include Red Satin (2002), Foreign Body (2016) and Buried Secrets (2016). Her most recent film is the documentary “She Had a Dream” (2020) which follows a Black Tunisian activist running for office in the 2019 legislative elections. In addressing the issue of racism and sexism in contemporary Tunisia in the film, Amari said “I also wanted to tell the story of Black women in Tunisia, because I felt they are somehow forgotten.”

Nabil Ayouch (b. 1 April, 1969) is a French-Moroccan director, screenwriter and producer. His films include Horses of God (2012) a drama about the 2003 Casablanca bombings and Morocco’s submission for the Best International Film at the Oscars, and Casablanca Beats (2021) centered around a group of young Moroccans who find their passion in hip-hop. It was the first Moroccan film to compete for a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2022, The Blue Caftan which he co-wrote with his director-wife Maryam Touzani was shortlisted for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards.

Samuel Bazawule (b, 19 April 1982), known professionally as Blitz Bazawule and Blitz the Ambassador, is a Ghanaian filmmaker, author, visual artist, rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer. Blitz made his debut as a film director debut with The Burial of Kojo (2018), which won Best First Feature Film by a Director at the 15th Africa Movie Academy Awards and the Grand Nile Prize at the Luxor African Film Festival. He directed the musical film adaptation The Color Purple in 2023 and is currently developing a six-episode miniseries based on his novel The Scent of Burnt Flowers about an African American fugitive couple seeking refuge in Ghana.

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Robert Anengo (b. April 22, 1986) is a Kenyan actor and casting director who is best known for his role in the TV series, Kona. He featured in Chiwetel Ejiofor’s critically acclaimed film, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2020) which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. He earned a nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 2020 AMAA Awards for his role in 40 Sticks (2020).

Gaston Kaboré (b. 23 April 1956) is a Burkinabe director and important figure in the Burkina Faso film industry. In 1997, he was awarded an Etalon d’Or at the Pan-African Festival of Cinema and Television of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) for Buud Yam, a historical film drawing on African oral tradition. The film’s sequel, Wênd Kûuni won the 1985 César Award for best Francophone film. An advocate for strengthening capacity in the African audiovisual industry, in 2003 he founded the Imagine Institute based in Ouagadougou, a training school for film and television professionals.

Souleymane Cissé (b. April 21 1940) is a Malian film director regarded as one Africa’s most influential filmmakers.. His films explore themes of tradition, modernity, and the clash between rural and urban life in Africa. His 1987 film, Yeelen based on a legend told by the Bambara people, which has been called “conceivably the greatest African film ever made”, won the Jury Prize at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first African film to win a prize in the festival's history. His other notable productions include Baara (1978), Waati (1995) and Tell Me Who You Are (2009).

Kagiso Lediga (b. May 6, 1978) is a South African comedian, actor and filmmaker who first came to fame for his television comedies such as The Pure Monate Show and the Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola. He made his first feature film, Matwetwe, a coming-of-age drama and the romantic comedy, Catching Feeling, the first South African film to stream globally on Netflx. Lediga’s next project was the Netflix crime drama series Queen Sono about a secret agent secret South African clandestine agent who tackles criminal operations while dealing with crises in her personal life.

Mildred Okwo (b. 29 April, 1966) is a Nigerian film director and producer. Her filmography includes 30 Days (2016), The Meeting (2012) Suru L’ere (2016) and La Femme Anjola (2019) an African neo-noir crime thriller and most recent film. The film earned her her fourth AMVCA nomination, this time for best picture. She is also co-founder of the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee which screens Nigerian films to be submitted for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Academy awards.

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Sana Na N’Hada (b. May 26 1950) is a pioneering filmmaker in Guinea-Bissau. He was the first director of Guinea-Bissau’s National Film Institute. He collaborated with notable filmmakers like Chris Marker on Marker’s essay film Sans Soleil (1983) and Flora Gomes on his first two short films. His works encompass shorts, documentaries and feature films. His first feature film, Xime (1994), was shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

Ivie Okujaiye (b. May 16 1987) is a Nigerian producer, actress and scriptwriter who gained popularity after winning the Amstel Malta Box Office reality TV show in 2009, earning the moniker “Little Genevieve” for her resemblance to veteran Nigerian actress Genevieve Nnaji. She made her Nollywood debut in Alero’s Symphony (2011) and has featured in other notable productions, including Hotel Majestic (2015) and Enakhe (2020). She won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Young Actor in 2012 and the Trailblazer Award at the 2013 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.

Ama K. Abebrese (b. May 3 1980) is a British-Ghanaian actress, TV presenter and producer. Best known for her role in the drama film Sinking Sands (2010), she won the Best Actress category at the 2011 AMAA Awards. Abebrese also starred in Beasts of No Nation (2015) and Azali (2018), Ghana’s first submission to the Oscars. Her most recent role is in The Storm, a Ghanian crime drama by Ben Owusu set for release in July 2024. She has earned multiple notable awards and nominations, including wins at the Ghana Movie Awards and Africa Movie Academy Awards.

Gavin Hood (b. May 12 1963) is a South African director and actorr who rose to prominence for the South African drama film Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006, the first South African film and first African film not made in French to win the award He has since gone on to produce international productions such as X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) Eye in the Sky (2015) and Official Secrets (2019).

Aïssa Maïga (b. May 25 1975) is a Senegal-born French actress whose breakthrough role was in Abderrahmane Sissako’s Malian drama Bamako (2006) for which she was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress. She was the first French actress of African descent to ever receive a nomination. She is also known for roles in films such as Paris, je t’aime (2006) Caché (2006), Mood Indigo (2013), and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s directorial debut, The Boy Who harnessed the Wind (2019). She is a vocal advocate for diversity and inclusion, founding the DiasporAct collective to address the underrepresentation of people of color in the French film industry. DiasporAct published a book of essays, called Noire n’est pas mon métier ('Black is not my job”) (ed. Seuil) that detail the inequity and racism black women face in the French film industry.

Matt Bish (b. 15 May, 1975) also known as Matthew Bishanga is a Ugandan filmmaker and the creative director of Bish Films. He co-founded Bish Films alongside his brother in 2005 in order to produce music videos. They, however, branched out to filmmaking and went on to direct the first Ugandan feature film, Battle of the Souls, in 2007, which went on to earn 11 nominations at the Africa Movie Academy Awards and won in the Best Visual Effects and Best Supporting Actor categories. His other notable productions include A Good Catholic Girl (2010) and State Research Bureau (2011).

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Rehema Nanfuka (b. May 25 1986) is a Ugandan actress, director and filmmaker known for her work in theatre, film and television. Her notable roles include her performances in Imani (2010), Queen of Katwe (2015) and Girl in the Yellow Jumper (2020). In 2018, she won the Best Director award for her film Veronica’s Wish (2018) at the Uganda Film Festival Awards, becoming the first woman to win the award.

Med Hondo (b. May 4 1936 in Atar, Mauritania and died March 2, 2019) is a Franco- Mauritanian actor, director, screenwriter and producer . He belongs to the second generation of African directors, after precursors like Ousmane Sembène. In 2022, his films Soleil Ô and West Indies were ranked 243rd and 152nd places respectively on the list of the greatest films of all time by Sight and Sound film magazine based on the votes of more than 1,600 critics.

Adel Emam (b. 17 May, 1940) is an Egyptian film, television, and stage actor. He is known for his comedic roles and has appeared in over 100 films and theatre productions. He started his career in theatre and has featured in films like My Wife, the Director General (1966), The Suspect (1981) and The Yacoubian Building (2006). He won the Horus Award at the Cairo International Film Festival for his roles in The Yacoubian Building (2006) and Al-irhabi (1994).

Wanuri Kahiu (b. June 21 1980) is an Kenyan filmmaker, producer, and writer. She first gained recognition for her film From a Whisper (2008) for which she won the award for Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Picture at the 2009 Africa Movie Academy Awards. Kahiu is known for tackling sensitive and often controversial subjects such as homosexuality. Her filmography includes Pumzi (2009), which challenges the pessimistic views of Africa’s future, and Rafiki (2018), the first Kenyan film to portray a love story involving two girls. In 2020, Kahiu signed a deal with Disney+ to adapt the popular Broadway musical, Once on This Island.

Dani Kouyaté (b. June 4 1961) is a Burkinabé film director and griot. Born in Bobo-Dioulasso, he comes from a long line of Mandinka griots and is the son of actor Sotigui Kouyaté. His debut feature film, Keïta! l'Héritage du griot (1995) won Best First Film Prize at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou and was awarded the Junior Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

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Mati Diop (b. 22 June, 1982), is a Franco-Senegalese director and actress. She comes from a family of creatives and is the niece of the filmmaker Djibril Diop Mambety. She directed her first short film, Last Night, in 2004. In 2019, her first feature film, Atlantique, was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, where she became the first black director to win the Grand Prix. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Film. In 2024, she won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale for her documentary, Dahomey, devoted to the question of the restitution by France of works of art stolen from Dahomey, present-day Benin.

Kim Engelbrecht (b. 20 June, 1980) is a South African actress mostly known for her television roles. She first gained popularity as Lolly in the popular South African soap opera Isidingo in 2011 and became known to a wider international audience for her roles on the American television series Dominion (2014–2015) and The Flash (2017–2018), and the titular character in the South African series Reyka (2021-24) in which she plays a criminal profiler. She won two South African Film and Television Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Soap and Best Actress in a TV Drama in Isidingo and Rekya respectively. Rekya also earned her an International Emmy Awards nomination for Best Actress.

Abu Bakr Shawky (b. 3 June, 1984) is an Egyptian-Austrian writer and director. His first feature film, Yomeddine, was selected to participate in the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was screened in the Main Competition section where it competed for the Palme d'Or. The film, about a former leper who travels through Egypt searching for the family who abandoned him, also won the Silver Tanit Award for Best Feature Film at the Carthage Film Festival.

Connie Chiume (b. 5 June 1952) is a South African actress and filmmaker. She is known for her film roles in Black Panther (2108), Black Is King (2020) and Blessers (2019). Her television credits include roles in the South African drama series Zone 14, Queen Sono (2020) and Gomora (2020). In 2000, she won the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama at the South African Film and Television Awards for her role in Zone 14.

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Henri-Joseph Koumba Bididi (b. 15 July 1957), is a Gabonese filmmaker and screenwriter. His filmography includes the critically acclaimed short film Le Singe Fou (2008) and feature film Le Collier du Makoko (2013), then the most expensive film produced in sub-Saharan Africa at a cost of 4 million euros.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (b. 10 July 1977) is a British-Nigerian actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award, with nominations for an Academy Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. His African filmography includes The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019) a drama film that he wrote, directed, and starred in, based on the memoir by William Kamkwamba, and Half of a Yellow Sun, based on the novel of the same name by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Adil El Fadili (b June 26, 1970) is a Moroccan director, producer, screenwriter, and editor. He is known for his award-winning short film Courte Vie, which traces the journey of a young boy, Zhar, from 1970 to 2010 and simultaneously highlights events that marked not only Morocco of the time but also the world. In 2024, his first feature film Mon père n’est pas mort won six awards including the Grand Prize at the 23rd edition of the National Film Festival of Tangier (FNF).

Gadalla Gubara (Arabic: جاد الله جبارة, July 1920 – 21 August 2008) was a Sudanese cameraman, film producer, director and photographer and pioneering figure in African cinema. Over five decades, he produced more than 50 documentaries and three feature films and was a co-founder of both the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers FEPACI and Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO).

Nomzamo Mbatha (b. 13 July 1990), is a South African actress. She became first known for her portrayal of one of the principal characters of the popular South African television drama series Isibaya from the premier of the series in 2013 until 2020. In 2021 she made the leap to Hollywood and the big screen where she was cast in a lead role in Coming 2 America. In 2023 Mbatha took on the role of Queen Nandi, the mother of the iconic 18th century King Shaka in the South African television series Shaka iLembe as well as served as executive producer.

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Richard Mofe-Damijo (b. 6 July 1961), popularly known as RMD, is a veteran Nigerian actor, writer, producer, lawyer, and former journalist. His filmography includes The Mayors (2004) for which he won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role; The Wedding Party (2016), and The Black Book (2023), the first-ever Nigerian film to soar to No. 3 on Netflix’s worldwide film charts.

Manouchka Kelly Labouba is a Gabonese director, screenwriter, and producer of short films including the critically acclaimed Marty et la tendre dame, Le guichet automatique, and Le divorce. With the release of Le divorce in 2008 she became the youngest director in the history of Gabon, and the first Gabonese woman to direct a fiction film in the country. She is also an academic, cinematographer, editor, and camera operator. Le divorce can be watched on Cine du Gabon's YouTube Channel.

Thabo Rametsi (b 17 July 1988) is a South African actor and producer. He is best known for his roles in The Giver, The Gamechangers, and Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu, a film based on the life of South African liberation fighter Solomon Kalushi Mahlangu. In Silverton Siege, a 2022 Netflix film, he plays Calvin Khumalo, another real-life anti-apartheid freedom fighter, part of Umkhonto WeSizwe. In June of 2024, Rametsi announced the development of “Imbokodo”, the first of a four-part comic book series in collaboration with Dark Horse Comics.

Hussein Shariffe (7 July 1934 – 21 January 2005) was a Sudanese filmmaker, painter, poet and university lecturer. Once returned to Sudan in the 1970s after years abroad, he worked both at the Ministry of Culture and at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Khartoum. In 1973 he began a second artistic career as filmmaker, producing several documentaries such as The Dislocation of Amber, a film about the historical port of Suakin on the Red Sea coast and Diary in Exile, an account of Sudanese living in exile in Egypt.

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Moufida Tlatli (August 4, 1947 – February 7, 2021) was a Tunisian film director, screenwriter, and editor. She is best known for her critically acclaimed first film The Silences of the Palace (2004), winner of several international awards. Set in the 1950s, the film explores issues of gender, class and sexuality through the lives of two generations of women living in a Tunisian prince's palace. She made two more well received movies,The Season of Men (2000) and Nadia and Sarra (2006).

Embeth Davidtz (b. August 11, 1965) is an American-South African actress and director. In 2024 Davidtz made her directorial debut with Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, an adaption of the best-selling memoir of the same name by Zimbabwean Alexandra Fuller about growing up on a farm in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. The film is scheduled to screen at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.

Likarion Wainaina (b. 20 August 1987), is a Russian–born Kenyan filmmaker. He is best known as the director of critically acclaimed shorts Between the Lines and Bait as well as the most awarded Kenyan film in history, Supa Modo about a terminally ill young girl whose village conspires to help her dream of being a superhero come true.

Niji Akanni (b. August 12, 1962) is a Nigerian dramatist, screenwriter, director, producer and filmmaker. Among his more prominent works, include Aramotu (2010), a film he both wrote and directed and winner of Best Nigerian Film at the 7th Africa Movie Academy Awards, and Heroes and Zeroes (2012) winner of Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Editing at the 9th Africa Movie Academy Awards.

Isaach de Bankolé (b. August 12, 1957) is an Ivorian actor, active primarily in France and the United States. He won the 1987 César Award for Most Promising Actor for his performance in the film Black Mic Mac, and rose to international prominence for his starring role in Claire Denis' 1988 film Chocolat. His African films include Where the Road Runs Out (2014) the first feature film to be shot in Equatorial Guinea and Mother of George (2013) in which he starred with Danai Gurira about a newly married Nigerian couple in Brooklyn who run a small restaurant while struggling with fertility issues.

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Kulanen Ikyo (b. August 5) is a Nigerian composer and sound editor. He is known for his work on some of Nollywood's most notable films of the past few years including October 1 (2014), The CEO (2016), Lionheart (2018), Oloture (2019), and The Black Book (2023). All these films are available to stream on Netflix. He is one of four Nigerian film composers featured in a short documentary series, Sounds of Nollywood, that can be viewed on YouTube.

Abdellah Taïa (b. August 8, 1973) is a Moroccan writer and filmmaker who writes in the French language. Based in Paris since 1999 he has published nine novels, many of them heavily autobiographical. Taïa became the first openly gay Arab writer in 2006. His first movie, Salvation Army (2013), is widely considered to have given Arab cinema its first gay protagonist. The film won multiple awards, including Best First Feature Film at the Durban International Film Festival.

Funke Akindele (b. August 24, 1977) is a Nigerian actress, director and producer who holds the distinction of helming the top three highest-grossing Nigerian films: Omo Ghetto:The Saga (2020), Battle on Buka Street (2022) and A Tribe Called Judah (2023), the only Nigerian film to have crossed the billion naira mark.

John Kani (b. 30 August, 1942) is a South African actor, author, director and playwright. He first gained renown for his theater roles in Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The Island co-written with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona. In 1975 he and Ntshona jointly won a Tony award for Best Actor for Sizwe Banzi is Dead. In recent years he has appeared in Hollywood blockbusters such as Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther (2018), and voicing Rafiki in The Lion King (2019). In July 2024, he received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contributions to drama and the arts.

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Ama Qamata (b. September 2, 1998) is a South African actress. She is best known for her roles as Buhle Ndaba in the Mzansi Magic series Gomora and Puleng Khumalo in the hit Netflix series Blood & Water.

Fanta Regina Nacro (born 4 September 1962) is known for being the first woman from Burkina Faso to direct a feature film and is a founding member of the Guilde Africaine des Realisateurs et Producteurs (The African Guild of Directors and Producers). Nacro's films frequently address the tension between tradition and modernity in Burkina Faso and with stories told around social issues such as AIDS and education for girls. Her short film Bintou won numerous festival awards in 2001 and 2002 including at the Cannes Film Festival and FESPACO.

Sarah Hassan (born 5 September 1988) is a Kenyan actress, producer, director. She is known for her roles in television series such as Crime and Justice, Tahidi High, and Zora and films that include the Nigerian-Kenyan romantic comedy Plan B and Family Vacation, a Netflix drama that dropped on August 8th. Her awards include Best Actress at the Kalasha Awards in 2019 for the Plan B, and again in 2021 for Crime and Justice.

Fred Kudjo Kuwornu (born 6 September 1971), is an Italian-Ghanaian filmmaker, producer, rights activist, film curator, and educator. His documentaries deal with political and social themes, such as racism, interracial relations, diversity, Afro-Italians and Black diasporic identity in Italy and the African diaspora in the world. These include ''Blaxploitalian 100 Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema'', Inside Buffalo and 18 IUS SOLI. We Were Here:The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe is currently on exhibit at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia at the Central Pavilion.

Mohamed Attia (born September 19, 1973) is an Egyptian production designer and art director who is best known for his collaborations with directors Marwan Hamed, Yousry Nasrallah, Mohamed Khan, and Tarek Alarian. He is also one of the key artistic directors behind the Pharaohs' Golden Parade and the parade that celebrated the restoration of Luxor's Avenue of Sphinxes. He received the Egyptian National Film Festival's Best Art Design Award for his work in The Blue Elephant (2014); the Egyptian Catholic Center for Cinema's Best Art Director Award for The Originals (2017); and the Cairo Design Award's Golden Award in the Production Design Category for Diamond Dust (2018) and Blue Elephant: Dark Whispers, and the Silver Award for Sons of Rizk 2 (2024).

Portal:African cinema/Selected_birthdays/23 Hafsa Zinaï Koudil (b 13 September 1951) is an Algerian novelist, journalist and film director living in France. She is best known for her first feature film Le démon au féminin (1993) based on the true story of Latifa, an Algerian professional who refused to wear a headscarf. At the request of her husband, Latifa was violently exorcised by Islamic fundamentalists in 1991. After receiving death threats while shooting the film, Koudil fled into exile in Tunisia. Accompanied by a police escort, she screened her film at the Amiens International Film Festival, where her film shared the Prix du Public.

Mohamed Emam (Arabic: محمد عادل محمد إمام; born 16 September 1984) is an Egyptian actor. He comes from a prominent family of filmmakers; his father is Adel Emam, one of Egypt's most famous actors, and his brother is the director Ramy Imam. Emam's first major film role was in the The Yacoubian Building (2006), then the most expensive Egyptian film, and like the eponymous novel, a scathing portrayal of modern Egyptian society. His next major role was a controversial comedy, Hassan and Marcus (2008) starring his father and Omar Sharif that addressed the tension between Muslims and Coptic Christians and won him a prize from the Alexandria International Film Festival in 2008. He continues to regularly star in Egyptian films and TV series, most recently in the Ramadan mini-series Cobra (2024).

Babetida Sadjo (b. on 19 September 1983) is a Belgian Guinea-Bissau-born actress best known for her role in Ellie Foumbi’s Our Father, the Devil (2021) for which she received wide acclaim for her starring role in the psychological drama. She also starred in the award-winning Icelandic drama Breathe Normally (2017) as a traveler from Guinea-Bissau trying to escape from her country's persecution of homosexuals by seeking asylum in Canada.

Majid Michel (b. 22 September, is a Ghanaian actor whose career has long-straddled both the Ghanaian and Nigerian film industries. He first gained prominence in the popular television serial drama Things We Do for Love (2003-06) which was followed by the film Divine Love, which provided him with his breakout starring role alongside Jackie Aygemang and Van Vicker. Michel has been nominated six times for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the Africa Movie Academy Awards and won the award in 2012 for Somewhere in Africa. He currently can be seen in Ramsey Nouah’s Netflix action drama,Tòkunbò released in August of this year.

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Biyi Bandele (13 October 1967 – 7 August 2022) was a Nigerian novelist, playwright and filmmaker. He was the author of several novels, beginning with The Man Who Came in From the Back of Beyond (1991), as well as writing stage plays, before turning his focus to filmmaking. His directorial debut was in 2013 with Half of a Yellow Sun, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. His last film was Elesin Oba, The King's Horseman (2022) a Netflix Nigerian historical drama based on Wole Soyinka's novel, Death and the King's Horseman.

Eriq Ebouaney (born 3 October 1967) is a French - Cameroonian actor. Among his African film roles, he is best known for his portrayal as the Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in the 2000 film Lumumba and as the lead in Le silence de la forêt (lit. 'The Silence of the Forest/The Forest') a 2003 adaption of the eponymous novel by Étienne Goyémidé and the first feature filmed in the Central African Republic.

Samba Gadjigo (born 12 October 1954), is a Senegalese filmmaker and writer. He is most notable as the director of critically acclaimed 2015 documentary Sembene!, based on the life of Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, often referred to as the father of African cinema.

Noufissa Benchehida (born 23 October 1975) is a Moroccan-French actress. She rose to fame playing the police officer Zineb Hejjami in the TV series police drama El kadia in 2006. Other starring roles followed including Aida (2015), Morocco's entry for the Oscar's Best Foreign Language Film and A la recherche du pouvoir perdu ("In Search of Lost Power"), for which she received Best Actress honors at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou in 2017.

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Michaela Coel (born 1 October 1987) is a British-Ghanaian actress, filmmaker and poet. She is best known for creating and starring in the sitcom Chewing Gum (2015–2017) and the comedy-drama series I May Destroy You (2020). For both series, she won BAFTA awards for Best Actress. She starred in the series Black Earth Rising (2018) in which she plays a Rwandan-born British legal investigator seeking truth and justice surrounding the Rwandan genocide. Her next TV series to start filming in 2025, will see Coel write, star in and executive produce First Day On Earth, a TV series about a British-Ghanaian novelist reconnecting with her father and her country of heritage.

Doreen Mirembe (born 4 October 1987), is a Ugandan actress, filmmaker, and producer. She is known for Damile, a popular TV series now in its second season. The series garnered Miremebe the 2024 Uganda Film Festival Best Actress award in a Drama Series and Best Drama Series. She also wrote, produced and starred in Kafa Coh (2022) a political thriller starring Michael Wawuyo Sr. and Mariam Ndagire, and A Dog Story (2015) a short story about the relationship between a kidnapped woman and her abductor. The film was critically well-received and won both Mirembe and Wawuyo awards for Best Actress and Best Actor at the Pearl International Film Festival.

Merzak Allouache (born 6 October 1940) is an Algerian film director and screenwriter and considered one of his country's most influential filmmakers. He first gained international acclaim with Omar Gatlato (1976), a seminal film that set a new a vocabulary for post-indepence Algerian filmmaking. Other notable films include Normal! (2011) winner of Best Film at the 2011 Doha Tribeca Film Festival; The Repentant (2012) about a former djihadist struggling to atone for his crime; and Salut cousin! (1996) which was Algeria's submission to the 69th Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.

Marc Zinga (born 21 October 1984) is an award-winning Congolese-Belgian actor, singer and filmmaker. He first achieved wide acclaim in May Allah Bless France! (2014)^, a biographical film about and directed by hip hop musician Abd al Malik, and for which he was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor. Other notable roles followed in the sports dramedy Scouting for Zebras; The Mercy of the Jungle (Best Actor winner at FESPACO 2019) and Omen, a 2023 film directed by Belgian-Congolese rapper Baloji in his feature film debut. Omen garnered Zinga his 4th Magritte nomination.

Katoucha Niane (23 October 1960 – 2 February 2008) was a Guinean model, activist and author. Nicknamed "The Peul Princess" (in reference to her ethnic Fula background), she was known as the muse of Yves Saint Laurent during the 1980s. She starred in just one film, Ramata (2007) directed by Léandre-Alain Baker, in which she played the title role of a married Senegalese woman who, aged 50, falls in love with a much younger man.

Mutiganda wa Nkunda (born 18 October, 1989) is a Rwandan screenwriter, director and producer. After several years of scripting and directing popular Rwandan television series, he directed his first feature film, Nameless, in 2021, which won the prize for Best Screenplay at FESPACO that same year. In 2020 he produced A Taste of our Land directed by Yuhi Amuli which won that year's awards for Best First Feature Narrative at the PanAfrican Film Festival and Best First Feature Film by a Director at the Africa Movie Academy Awards.

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Isaac Nabwana (born. Nov 6, 1973), popularly known as Nabwana I.G.G., is a Ugandan film director, cinematographer, writer and producer.He is the founder of the film studio Wakaliwood, known for producing popular ultra-low budget action comedy films. He has been referred to as Uganda's Quentin Tarantino due to his use of over-the-top violence. Nabwana first started to gain wide international attention after uploading a trailer of Who Killed Captain Alex? on YouTube in 2010 followed by the entire film in 2015. The film has gained a cult status and has over 9.8 million views on YouTube.

Niyi Akinmolayan (born November 3, 1982) is a Nigerian filmmaker and director known for his work in both blockbuster and independent films. He is also the founder of Anthill Studios, a media production facility. He directed The Wedding Party 2 (2017) Chief Daddy (2018), Prophetess (2021), My Village People (2021), and The Set Up (2019), all among the highest-grossing Nigerian films of all time. His most recent film, Lisabi: The Uprising, is a 2024 Nigerian historical drama that was released on Netflix in September.

Thandiwe Newton (born 6 November 1972) is an award-winning British actress of Zimbabwean descent. Mostly known for her Hollywood roles in films and TV series such as Crash, Star Wars, ER and Westworld, Newton’s African filmography includes Half of a Yellow Sun, a 2013 Anglo-Nigerian drama film directed by Biyi Bandele and based on the novel of the same name by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She also was an executive producer of the animated-live action documentary film Liyana, which tells the story of five orphaned children in Swaziland who create an original tale about a girl named Liyana.

Oulaya Amamra (born 12 November 1996) is a French-Moroccan actress who first came to prominence in the 2016 films Divines and Tamara. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress and the Lumières Award for Best Female Revelation for Divines, a coming of age story directed by her older sister Houda Benyamina and which won Beynamina the Caméra d'O at Cannes. Among her most recent roles is in her sister's sophomore film, Toutes pour une (All for One) (2025) in which Amamra teams up again with her Divines co-star Déborah Lukumuena, to play one of three musketeers disguised as men in 1625 France.

Syndy Emade (born 21 November 1993) is a Cameroonian actress and producer. She made her acting debut in 2010 in the film Obsession by Achille Brice and in 2015 founded BLUE RAIN Entertainment, a production company whose film credits include the 2017 romantic comedy A Man For The Weekend featuring Nollywood star Alexx Ekubo, and one of the first Cameroonian films to stream on Netflix. Most recently she starred in the 2024 film When Wolves Cry, a pan-African advocacy drama on the perils of “fake news” that filmmed in Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo and Benin starring Francis Duru, Steve Eboh, Sydney Diala, Happy Julian, and Alex Nwankwa.

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Niyi Akinmolayan (b. 3 November) is a Nigerian filmmaker best known for directing Nollywood blockbuster, The Wedding Party 2, and as Founder and Creative Director of Anthill Studios. In January 2022, Anthill Studios inked a multi-year worldwide license arrangement with Amazon Prime Video.

Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey aka IGG Nabwana, (b. 6 November), is a Director dubbed the “Quentin Tarantino of Uganda” and founder of Wakaliwood the studio behind low-budget action films such as Bad Black and the cult classic Who Killed Captain Alex?

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Thandiwe Newton, (b. 7 November 1972) is a British-Zimbabwean actress who currently stars in the HBO science fiction-western series Westworld. Her filmography includes a starring role in Half a Yellow Sun, based on the novel of the same name by Nigerian author Chimanada Ngozi Adichie and Liyana, an animated Swazi documentary film that tells the personal narratives of five orphaned children growing up in Swaziland. It won the best documentary prize at the 2017 LA Film Festival,

Karim Amer (b. 10 Nov 1983) is an Egyptian-American film producer and director. He worked on The Square (2013) which depicts the Egyptian Crisis until 2013, starting with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 at Tahrir Square, and The Great Hack (2019). The Square was the first Egyptian film to earn an Academy Award nomination and went on to win three Emmy Awards, while The Great Hack got nominated for an Emmy and a BAFTA Award.

Michael Wawuyo Sr (b. 11 Nov 1948) is a Ugandan actor and special effects artist. He is known for his big screen roles on Last King of Scotland, Kony: Order from Above, The Only Son, Sometimes in Apriland The Mercy of the Jungle. A also did work as a special effects and make-up artist on films that include The Felista's Fable, for which he received his first nomination at the 2nd Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards in 2014, The Mercy of the Jungle, and Imbabazi: The Pardon (2013).

Charmaine Bingwa (b. 13 Nov 1984) is a Zimbabwean-Australian actress principally known for her role as Carmen Moyo in The Good Fight TV series. Her upcoming projects include the epic Emancipation alongside Will Smith and as the warrior Isisa in the King Shaka Showtime TV series (filming in 2022) co-starring Aïssa Maïga, Thapelo Mokoena and Warren Masemola.

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Abdellatif Kechiche (b. 7 December 1960) is a Tunisian-French actor, director and screenwriter. He made his directorial debut with the award-winning 2000 Poetical Refugee drama about a young North African who immigrates illegally to France. Among the eight awards it received was the Venice Film Festival Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film. Kechiche is the recipient of several César Awards and in 2013 of the Palme d’Or, Cannes Film Festival's highest honor, for Blue Is the Warmest Colour.

Suhaib Gasmelbari (b. 17 December 1979) is a Sudanese film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer known for the 2019 documentaryTalking About Trees. Filmed clandestinely, the film follows the efforts of the Sudanese Film Group, comprised of a group of veteran filmmakers, to reopen an outdoor movie theater in the city of Omdurman in the face of decades of Islamist censorship. It received wide acclaim and numerous awards including the FIPRESCI Prize at the International Istanbul Film Festival, Tanit d'or at the Carthage Film Festival, and the Golden Star at El Gouna Film Festival.

Flora Gomes (b. 31 December 1949) is a Bissau-Guinean film director known for the landmark 1988 film Mortu Nega (Death Denied). Shot fourteen years after independence, Mortu Nega depicts the struggle for independence and the challenges of the first post-independence years in Guinea-Bissau. It was the first fiction film and the second feature film ever made in Guinea-Bissau and won the prestigious Oumarou Ganda Prize at the 1989 FESPACO festival.

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