When South African film Tsotsi won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006, it felt like the entire continent was up on that stage, crying and thanking the ancestors. It is not all the time that Africans take centre stage in the global entertainment industry. By Julie Masiga
It just doesn't happen that often, which is why Lupita Nyong'o who won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role must be commended. In this fleeting moment, the dreams and aspirations of a country, nay a continent, are reflected in her image. She's our Yes, we can' girl, just like Tsotsi was our Yes, we can' film back in 2006. But let's not forget London-born Nigerian Chiwetel Ejiofor, who had been nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, the main character in 12 Years a Slave. By carrying off the tragic and dehumanising Solomon Northup role with such strength and dignity, he's done his bit for the self-esteem of all people of black descent.
Somali pirates And then there's the retiring Barkhad Abdi (nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role), the Somali-American actor who made an absolute meal of his character in Captain Philips, giving such a startling portrayal of what we all imagine Somali pirates to be, even though what we imagine is probably a very inauthentic version of the truth. It's hard to believe that this is a man who responded to a cattle-call audition, without the benefit of a Yale education, doing so well with the role that he won in the Best Supporting Actor category at the 2014 Baftas (British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards). The Baftas are billed as the precursor to Oscar glory. This is clearly a good year for Africa at the Oscars.
But we have had other successes. One of the earliest films that was shot in Kenya and went on to gain international recognition was 1966's Born Free. The film about conservationists Joy and George Adamson, who raised an orphan lion cub to adulthood, had been nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Motion Picture category. Yes, it was mostly a Hollywood endeavour but it was shot on location in Nairobi's Karen area. And it is oft forgotten that Iman had a cameo role as Mariammo, acting alongside a host of local extras including Stephen Kinyanjui who played Chief Kinyanjui.
Twenty years later, in 2006, The Constant Gardner - also shot in Kenya - picked up a slew of nominations. It is on this film that Lupita got her first look into the workings of filmmaking Hollywood style, as she worked as a production assistant tasked to babysit the talent (actors/actresses). Ralph Fiennes, a main character in the film, gave her sage advice when she told him of her acting ambitions: Lupita, only act if you can't breathe without it.
There have been other films/documentaries, either directly or indirectly linked to Africa over the years, some of which have been nominated for Oscars and other which have won, including South Africa's Searching for Sugar Man, a 2013 documentary. South Africa was also closely associated with 2010's Invictus and District 9, two films that received six Oscar nominations between them, with the latter even getting the nod for Best Picture. Unfortunately, those nominations didn't turn into wins in any of the nominated categories. Despite those disappointments, Africa still got her moment in the spotlight courtesy of Music by Prudence, a documentary about a disabled woman living in rural Zimbabwe, which took home the Oscar in that category.
This year, Egyptian documentary The Square, a short film about Tahrir Square as the epicentre of the country's revolution in the whirlwind that was the Arab Spring, was nominated for Best Documentary Feature. But there is an elite group of African actors that have been working in the film industry for years, with varying degrees of recognition. First, a rightful mention of all the women of African descent on whose shoulders Lupita stands. We recognise the beautiful, talented and award winning Thandie Newton (English/Zimbabwean), who starred in such notable films as Beloved, Crash, The Pursuit of Happiness and Mission Impossible II.
Shout out to Ms Sophie Okonedo (Nigerian/English), who was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 2004 for her role as Tatiana Rusesabagina in Hotel Rwanda. Not forgetting Ms Charlize Theron who actually won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her sterling performance in 2008's Monster. Ms Rachel Mwanza, a rising star from the Democratic Republic of Congo, won Best Actress awards at the Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals for her role in Rebelle: War Witch, which was released in 2012.
While there are many other African leading actresses, it is fitting to round off our appreciation with a tribute to South Africa's Leleti Khumalo who first captured our hearts in Sarafina, while it was yet a humble stage play.
Kenya's Edi Gathegi has been a Hollywood fixture for quite some time now. The 34-year-old actor's portfolio is diverse including TV roles in House, Nikita, Red Widow and Justified and film roles in the Twilight Saga: New Moon, Gone Baby Gone and X-Men: First Class. His latest movie Shiva and May has a 2014 release date. If ever there was an unsung Kenyan hero - in the world of film and television at least - this is the man. He's working hard for his money.
Speaking of hardworking Africans in America, what about the delicious Djimon Honsou? Even as he knocks at 50's door, Honsou is still a sight for sore eyes. And the man has been in more films than most thought possible back when he was a Calvin Klein underwear model. Since then, he's been in Gladiator, Amistad, In America, Blood Diamond, Push, Baggage Claim and Beauty Shop (just to name a few). He stars in the next instalment of popular franchise Fast & Furious, which is set f
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
When South African film Tsotsi won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006, it felt like the entire continent was up on that stage, crying and thanking the ancestors. It is not all the time that Africans take centre stage in the global entertainment industry. By Julie Masiga
