Popular ways to see African cinema are festivals, satellite television and local streaming platforms. This was reported to socialbites.ca by the press service of Kinopoisk, citing a social anthropologist, researcher of African culture and teacher at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the State Agrarian University.
Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind the rest of the world in terms of the number and availability of cinemas per capita. According to UNESCO’s 2023 report, there are only 1,653 active cinemas on the continent, including the northern countries.
“The crisis can be explained by poor marketing and a repertoire consisting mostly of Hollywood action movies, Indian melodramas and Western animations that did not satisfy the local audience. The second thesis is supported by the fact of the tremendous success in African film distribution of popular Western films, especially those that touch on African themes in one way or another,” explained the expert.
He added that the main reason is still insufficient effective demand and low culture. But those interested in cinema use three sources: festivals, streaming services and satellite television.
“In the African market, there is South African streaming platform Showmax and Nigerian platform Iroko Tv, which specializes in broadcasting Nollywood movies,” the expert said.
Among the festivals, he highlighted FESPACO, which has been meeting every two years in Ouagadougou for more than 50 years.
“The next most popular ones – the annual Durban (South Africa) and Zanzibar (Tanzania) – are not just for Africa, but today, both here and there, African film production dominates and reaps major awards. AFRIFF in Lagos (Nigeria) is a little less known, but it is an African film festival in its purest form,” concluded the expert.
Previously in Burkina Faso Gogol’s characters dressed in national costumes.