Ahead of the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off next month, I reflect on my experience at the 2004 edition of the festival and offer a few lessons for players in African cinema.
Art isn’t a zero-sum game, but Oscar categories are
At the end of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, I was convinced that several films I had seen will eventually get to the Oscars, The Girl With the Needle (Denmark) and Emilia Perez (France) being two of them.
At the time, I didn’t think highly of Anora, but it had so much buzz within a couple days of its screening that I barely made it into the last screening—which took place a distance away from the Croisette. The controversy around Mohammad Rasoulof meant that his film also had a chance.
This suggested that the chances that an African picture gets to the Oscars were shrinking. Art isn’t a zero-sum game, but Oscar categories certainly are. If one venue, never mind that it’s the biggest venue in world cinema, throws up several awardable films not from the continent, then space for African cinema at the most prestigious world awards in film pretty much dissappears. Bear in mind that before the awards proper a shortlist of only 15 films is produced.
So, with each excellent non-American film I saw, I understood the implications for African cinema at the grandest of film awards. The lesson here is that before dreaming of following in the footsteps of Gavin Hood back in 2006, Africa’s filmmakers should probably aim for getting into the competition section of one of the Big 3 film festivals, Berlin, Venice, Cannes. Media attention and acclaim can then take it all the way, hopefully.
For last year, it came down to Mati Diop’s Dahomey representing Africa at the shortlist stage. The film had won the Golden Bear in Berlin months before, so it stood some kind of chance—although in an interview later in the year, Diop told me that she felt Cannes had a bigger sway with the Academy than Berlin. Based on what happened subsequently at the Oscars, she was right.
Africa’s film festivals need to get better at selecting films
Cannes is a very hierarchical event. You see this at the red carpets, you see this at the different queues as you await entry, you even see this with the press badges. Armed with anything but the highest-level badges for press, the festival can be a frustrating slog for journalists/critics.
And yet, once you do get a chance to see the films it has selected, you understand (almost anyway). Its selection of films is first-rate. At the end of the festival, I felt I had seen at least 5 films that were potential classics.
I have never left a film festival in Africa thinking that highly of its selection. Instead, I have been to festivals where I wondered why certain films were programmed in the competition category or even appearing at a festival at all. Cannes had its own surprises, its own shortcomings. As I wrote for the Guardian UK, there was a film in competition I suspected only got in there because its director and some of its stars are from European filmmaking royalty. But on the whole, Cannes delivers not just in atmosphere but in what appears on the big screen. Which, some African film festivals seem to forget is the centrepiece of their event.
I have told at least once that African film festivals have such weak films even in their highest categories because there just isn’t enough great work being produced. My response is this: African festivals don’t need to have a restrictive number of slots for its competitive categories. It is perfectly acceptable to have less than 10 films in competition.
Let’s make do with slim pickings, instead of cheapening what should be an honour and a mark of high artistry.
African film festivals need to do better with film critics and the media
If you do a great film but don’t have a particularly large box of cash for marketing, the press at a festival can help you generate buzz that can prove useful when it’s release time. This is one of the main reasons festivals exist and will continue to exist.
It is also one of the things African film festivals get wrong. From Lagos to Ouagadougou to Durban, it is the same story. The festivals are generally averse to striking deals with serious platforms, choosing instead to favour celebrity publications, if even that happens. Every kind of platform is useful but celebrity-focused ones rarely care about the quality of films and are generally more likely to flock towards established stars. Who then caters to the unknown director and crew who have done astounding work but without the budget for big-name actors?
At Cannes, an entire floor is reserved for the press. You can see a film, leave the hall, and begin a review. You can schedule interviews on the same floor. You have access to staff who will see what they can do to help you fix a media-related issue. Filmmakers and their teams can easily reach out to the press for coverage. A lot of these things happen because the festivals are intentional and there is a business model at play. On a tangential level, in 2019, Justin Chang, then a film critic at the Los Angeles Times, was one of the jury members at the Berlinale, alongside Sandra Huller, Sebastian Lelio, and Juliette Binoche, who chaired the jury. I can’t recall an African critic covering mainstream cinema getting such an invitation at one of our big festivals.
It would be immensely helpful if African film festivals understand what they owe their best filmmakers and how they contribute to helping a great film find its champions.
