African Pavilion @ Cannes

Context

Since 2019, the African Pavilion at Cannes Film Festival has been a stable and reliable platform enabling African and Afro-descended filmmakers to shine, network and benefit from the incredible opportunities presented by the African Pavilion.

The host of high profile partners, (African Union, CNC, AFD to name a few), the wealth of activities (Pitch session, training, red carpet, meetups, country presentation), the presence of VIPs from across the African diaspora, has made the African Pavilion the number one meeting platform for filmmakers at Cannes film festival.

The African film industry is experiencing a major growth curve for the past 5 years, with Nigeria and Nollywood becoming the 2nd largest film market in the world in term of production and 3rd in terms of revenues. Film has become the second economic growth vector in Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana. All leading streaming
services (Netflix, Amazon...) have set up shop on the continent to tap into the unending potential of African creative and its billion people strong audience.

Other African countries are working towards propelling their local creative industries to the fore. Despite these facts, there is an uneven distribution of fortunes and opportunities within the African film space. For countless of African filmmakers, the key challenge remains access to professional training, production
infrastructure, funding (private or institutional), IP regulation, promotion, tax rebates, distribution channels and access to the global market.

USP

The African Pavilion, since its inception, has positioned itself as as a strategic bridge between African filmmakers and the international film marketplace, allowing free interaction of the latter with key stakeholders with funding, training, infrastructure and knowledge to bring their support to African filmmakers.

The African Pavilion also creates long-term synergies between African regulators, film commissions, supra-national entities and government entities vying for more collaboration with their European and global counterpart during the Cannes Film Festival.

The African Pavilion sole objective is to accompany, nurture and support the growth of the African film industry for its creatives, regulators, academics, financers, administrators.

Milestones

Since 2019, the African Pavilion numbers and facts are:

Over 5,000 participants and attendees
7 post-screenings
15 Official African delegations hosted
29 Talents accompanied
29 African films were selected presented at the African Pavillon joined
Cannes Film Festival programming:

22 Films in the Parallel selections
7 films in the official selection

40+ corporate and institutional partners
20 media partners across Africa
100 + B2B /B2G / G2G meetings
3 Co-production MOU signed
8 African festival partners

Some of VIPs that attended the African Pavilion over the years:

Aissa Maiga, French actress
Omar Sy, French actor
Mati Diop, director, recipient of Cannes Grand Prize
Amartei Armar, Ghanaian Director premiered his movie at Cannes in 2022 and whose after party was at the African Pavilion