Best Friend Forever
"Banel & Adama" by French Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy will feature in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Running from May 16-27, the world's most prestigious film festival will feature a bumper crop of titles by filmmakers associated with the African continent. Look through the gallery to learn more.
Iconoclast/Chi-Fou-Mi Productions/Studiocanal/France 2 Cinéma
"Omar La Fraise," directed by French Algerian Elias Belkeddar, stars Reda Kateb and Benoît Magimel as members of Algiers' criminal underworld. The film, Belkeddar's first feature, premieres in the official selection's midnight screenings.
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"Les Filles d'Olfa" ("Four Daughters"), directed by Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania, is a rarity -- a documentary competing for the Palme d'Or. After Olfa's two oldest daughters disappear, the director invites two professional actors to fill their place, fusing fiction and reality to explore the impact of the event.
Brouhaha Entertainment
"Firebrand" by Algerian Brazilian director Karim Ainouz stars Jude Law as Henry VIII and Alicia Vikander as Katherine Parr (pictured), the last of the Tudor king's wives, who must do what she can to stay alive. The film premieres in competition for the Palme d'Or.
Barney Production/Mont Fleuri Production/Niko Films/Entre Chiens et Loup
"Déserts" is a Moroccan title at the festival. Directed by Faouzi Bensaïdi, friends and debt collectors Mehdi and Hamid must venture into the Sahara Desert for work, only to encounter a fugitive at a gas station, kickstarting a mystical journey.
Tadem Films
"Little Girl Blue" by French Algerian Mona Achache is a docudrama starring Marion Cotillard. The actor plays the director's mother, who Achache decides to "resurrect" to understand more about her life. A late addition to the festival, it premieres as a special screening.
Barney Production/Mont Fleuri Production/Beluga Tree
"Les Meutes" ("The Hounds") by Moroccan Kamal Lazraq follows a father and son, small time crooks in Casablanca's criminal world. When a kidnapping goes wrong, they're saddled with a body to dispose of. The film premieres in Un Certain Regard.
Insight Films
"Kadib Abyad" ("The Mother of All Lies"), by Asmae El Moudir sees the Moroccan director examine her family history in Casablanca, and reflect on the 1981 Bread Riots. Starring Zahra Jeddaoui (pictured), the film premieres in the Un Certain Regard strand.
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"Goodbye Julia" by Mohamed Kordofani is the first film by a Sudanese filmmaker to feature in the official selection at Cannes. The director's debut features in Un Certain Regard and stars Eiman Yousif and Siran Riak (former Miss Sudan), as two women entangled by a hit-and-run incident.
Tândor Productions
"Mambar Pierrette," by Cameroonian director Rosine Mbakam will feature in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar. Set in Douala, Cameroon's largest city, a dressmaker and neighborhood confidant must weather a flood and other misfortunes to stay afloat.
Jemal Countess/Getty Images
African cinema is being celebrated off-screen too. Malian writer-director Souleymane Cisse (pictured at the Tribeca Film Festival, New York, in 2011) will be awarded the Carrosse d'Or, the honorary award bestowed by the festival's Directors' Fortnight sidebar. Cisse is perhaps best known for "Yeelen" (1987).
Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images
British Zambian director Rungano Nyoni made her feature debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 with "I Am Not a Witch," a social satire set in Zambia. Now she returns to the festival as a juror who will help decide the Palme d'Or winner.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Fellow competition juror Maryam Touzani is a Moroccan director and actor, and a Cannes habitue. She directed "The Blue Caftan," part of the official selection in 2022.
CNN  — 

It is a historic year for African cinema at the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, showcasing more films and filmmakers associated with Africa than ever before.

Films with connections to the continent include selections from Tunisia, Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, Sudan, and Cameroon, along with off-screen recognition for legendary Malian writer-director Souleymane Cissé – who was honored on Wednesday with the Carrosse d’Or award for cinematic pioneers.

Among the contenders for the prestigious Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize, is “Banel & Adama,” the debut feature for French Senegalese director Ramata-Toulaye Sy. The film, a late surprise addition to the official selection, premiered on Saturday in Cannes’ Grand Théâtre Lumière.

African cinema is more exciting than ever. Where's its wider recognition?

“For me, it is important to tell stories that take place in Africa because this continent has to be seen and needs to be recognized more than it does today, with more universal and different stories – not just stories about how poor the continent is, the war, the terrorism,” Sy told CNN in an interview ahead of the festival.

To premiere in the Grand Théâtre Lumière, she added, “makes you dream.”

Look through the gallery at the top of this page for more on the African films and filmmakers at Cannes 2023.