Sinema Focus KE

Incisive coverage of film, TV & theatre in Kenya & beyond. Story tips, pitches & exclusives 📧: [email protected] IG:

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Where’s the Money? Where’s the Accountability? Kenya’s Creative Economy and the Performance of Progress

We take a close look at the creative economy’s budget allocation and expenditure.

Read more below.

https://t.co/luZDuPQ69v

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Kenyan documentary Truck Mama, about a long-haul truck driver and single mother of two, has taken over 10 years to complete.

Now, the feature has been selected as the opening film at Encounters Documentary Festival, running from 4–14 June.

Read more: https://t.co/pveKs1YwUm

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

From Kenya’s ‘Supa Modo’ to Uganda’s ‘Bobi Wine: The People’s President’ and Eswatini’s ‘Liyana’ to Sudan's 'Goodbye Julia', presenting a curated playlist of the best African films to watch on YouTube.

Read more: https://t.co/yC71WXThx7

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

As it enters its second edition, Locarno Open Doors’ Africa-focused cycle selects filmmakers across fiction, documentary and animation from more than ten African countries.

Read more: https://t.co/rrRx4JdLwI

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Tanzanian-Kenyan Co-Production ‘The Ones With the Tempered Flowers’ and Uganda’s ‘A Vineyard for A Lobster’ Among Projects Selected for Locarno Open Doors 2026

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

From Kenya’s ‘Supa Modo’ to Uganda’s ‘Bobi Wine: The People’s President’ and Eswatini’s ‘Liyana’ to Sudan's 'Goodbye Julia', presenting a curated playlist of the best African films to watch on YouTube.

Read more: https://t.co/yC71WXThx7

[African Film Press @africafilmpress]

African Film Press (AFP) — the cross-regional alliance of founding publications @akorokoafrica, @sinemafocuske, @WKM_Up — joins Locarno Open Doors 2026 as an award partner, presenting the next AFP Critics Prize.

Year two of the Africa cycle runs 5–10 August: six projects, six producers, and five directors from across the continent.

PROJECTS
- "Too Much Music" (Ghana) — Aseye Fiagbe's documentary on keyboardist Kiki Gyan.
- "Chapa 100" (Mozambique/South Africa) — Ique Langa's surrealist love story, produced by Lara Sousa.
- "I Live in V.I" (Nigeria) — Ugochukwu Azuya's satire on urban space and gentrification.
- "Accept My Plea For Burial" (Somalia/Djibouti) — Mohammed Sheikh's drama on tradition versus justice.
- "The Ones With The Tempered Flowers" (Tanzania/Kenya) — Neema Ngelime's experimental documentary.
- "A Vineyard for A Lobster" (Uganda) — Talemwa Pius's colonial allegory in a snow-covered landscape.

PRODUCERS
- Mamounata Nikiema (Burkina Faso), knighted at FESPACO 2021.
- Natasha Craveiro (Cabo Verde), producer of "Omi Nobu."
- Adja Mariam Mahre Soro (Ivory Coast), founder of Abidjan animation studio Studio Kä.
- David Ikeata (Nigeria), co-producer of "Adam Bol" (2024).
- Rua Osman (Sudan), credits include "You Will Die at Twenty" and "Goodbye Julia."
- Tapiwa Chipfupa (Zimbabwe), EAVE alumna behind the AVEL program.

DIRECTORS
- Fagamou Fama Ndiaye (Senegal)
- Rediet Haddis Yalew (Ethiopia)
- Pocas Pascoal (Angola)
- Judith Nini Kibinge (Kenya)
- Ariel Añez (Mozambique)

Head of Open Doors Zsuzsi Bánkuti: the future of cinema "depends on who gets to make it, and how."

Head of Studies Yanis Gaye called African film ecosystems "a chance for the industry… to globally redesign" how it works.

Awards go out 10 August: the Open Doors Grant (CHF 50,000), CNC Development Prize (EUR 8,000), Arte Kino Prize (EUR 6,000), a new EAVE/Luxembourg Film Fund scholarship, and the AFP Critics Prize — a certificate, $500 cash award, and ongoing coverage across Akoroko, Sinema Focus, and What Kept Me Up.

#LocarnoFilmFestival #OpenDoors #AFPCriticsPrize #AfricanCinema #AfricanFilm #AfricanFilmPress #Locarno2026

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Kenyan documentary Truck Mama, about a long-haul truck driver and single mother of two, has taken over 10 years to complete.

Now, the feature has been selected as the opening film at Encounters Documentary Festival, running from 4–14 June.

Read more: https://t.co/pveKs1YwUm

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Theatre Review: Grief, Madness and Grace in ‘In the Seashell Hum’

“A haunting and psychologically charged stage play about grief, mental illness, masculinity and the fragile line between reality and hallucination.”

Read more below.

https://t.co/n3IipYUiyW

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Defining Moment for Rwanda as Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s ‘Ben’Imana’ Wins Caméra d’Or and FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes

“I made this film because I wanted to pay tribute to the women of my country, those mothers who are at the roots of an entire nation’s healing. Those mothers who, through error and unspeakable, found the strength to remain standing with dignity…” - Dusabejambo said during her acceptance speech.

Read more: https://t.co/qjhAzTaiv7

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood Psychological Thriller ‘Bloodwood’ to Partly Shoot in Kenya

Filming in Kenya is scheduled to begin in September 2026 at Loirien in the Maasai Mara.

Read more below.

https://t.co/UgXGRxvefZ

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

@craftlystconn And filmmakers figuring out how to best monetize their work.

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Africa Day Op-Ed: YouTube Already Has Africa’s Best Films. It Just Needs Curation

To celebrate #AfricaDay, film publicist Kevin Kriedemann makes a case for African films on YouTube, arguing that the platform is quietly becoming home to some of the continent’s best films, but discovery remains the challenge.

Read more here: https://t.co/5WJeZElMBp

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Defining Moment for Rwanda as Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s ‘Ben’Imana’ Wins Caméra d’Or and FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes

“I made this film because I wanted to pay tribute to the women of my country, those mothers who are at the roots of an entire nation’s healing. Those mothers who, through error and unspeakable, found the strength to remain standing with dignity…” - Dusabejambo said during her acceptance speech.

Read more: https://t.co/qjhAzTaiv7

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood Psychological Thriller ‘Bloodwood’ to Partly Shoot in Kenya

Filming in Kenya is scheduled to begin in September 2026 at Loirien in the Maasai Mara.

Read more below.

https://t.co/UgXGRxvefZ

[African Film Press @africafilmpress]

CANNES 2026: Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset wins Best Actor at Un Certain Regard for "Congo Boy," directed by Rafiki Fariala.

He closed his acceptance speech in song. Last line: "I am a young Congolese! I am a refugee! I am a star!"

His win is the fourth African acting prize at Un Certain Regard since the festival resumed in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The four: Adam Bessa (Tunisian-French) for "Harka," 2022. Abou Sangaré (Guinean) for "L'Histoire de Souleymane," 2024. Cleo Diára (Cape Verde-born) for "O Riso e a Faca," 2025. Fiomona Dembeasset for "Congo Boy" on Friday.

In "Congo Boy," Fiomona Dembeasset plays a Congolese refugee teenager in Bangui who cares for his siblings during the civil war while pursuing a music career. The film is heavily autobiographical.

#Cannes2026 #UnCertainRegard #CongoBoy #RafikiFariala #BradleyFiomonaDembeasset #AfricanCinema

[African Film Press @africafilmpress]

"Ben'Imana," Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s first feature, won the FIPRESCI Award at the 79th Cannes Film Festival after premiering in Un Certain Regard.

The FIPRESCI Award is the International Critics’ Prize, given by a jury from the International Federation of Film Critics. The prize exists to support film art and encourage new and young cinema, and its Cannes presence dates back to the festival’s first edition in 1946.

The Rwanda-set "Ben'Imana" follows Vénéranda, a survivor of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, as she leads community reconciliation work in 2012 and faces a private family crisis.

#Cannes2026
#BenImana
#FIPRESCI
#RwandanCinema

[Akoroko — African Cinema Now! @akorokoafrica]

Akoroko's Tambay Obenson to Deliver Virtual Public Keynote at University of Toronto's Black Studies Summer Seminar

Akoroko founder and editor Tambay Obenson will deliver a virtual public keynote at the fifth edition of the Black Studies Summer Seminar (<BLK-S3tudies>), hosted by the University of Toronto Scarborough, on Thursday, May 28, 2026, from 3:15 PM to 4:45 PM EST.

The talk, titled "Reporting, Researching, and Tool-Building Across African Film, TV, and Digital Media Ecosystems," is free and open to the public and will be streamed live to a global audience. Registration details and the livestream link are available at https://t.co/CmwPd4uDts.

The session draws from over a decade of editorial and research work across the African and African diaspora screen sectors — from Shadow and Act to Akoroko, to @africafilmpress, the cross-regional alliance Akoroko co-founded with @sinemafocuske in Kenya and @WKM_Up in Nigeria.

The Black Studies Summer Seminar is a five-day research-intensive program for PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows, pre-tenure faculty, librarians, archivists, researchers, and artists working in and around the field of Black Studies in Canada and beyond.

Its 2026 theme — "The next place we go, they will follow": Beyond Digital Capture — asks how technologies of surveillance, data extraction, and algorithmic reproduction attempt to enclose Black life, and how scholars, artists, and practitioners are responding.

This year's program features keynotes and workshops from Kameelah Janan Rasheed (Yale School of Art, CalArts), Stanley H. Griffin (University of the West Indies, Mona), Lauren McLeod Cramer (University of Toronto), and the Wilding AI collective, alongside a 14-member cohort drawn from institutions across Canada and the United States.

The full schedule and presenter bios are available on the seminar's website: https://t.co/K3XNAw4f25

#BlackStudies #DigitalCapture #AfricanCinema #Akoroko

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

Three Kenyan Projects Selected for Durban FilmMart Pitch and Finance Forum 2026

Read more here: https://t.co/OCN39LaqBy

[Sinema Focus KE @sinemafocuske]

“What the industry requires is money!” Lifetime Achievement Award winner John Karanja did not mince his words during his acceptance speech at the Kalasha Awards.

🎥: Kenya Film Commission