Top 10 2023 movies that celebrate African culture: While Obasi and fellow Nigerian Walé Oyéjidé have been pushing the limits of Nigerian cinema, emerging directors from Guinea and Sudan have introduced audiences outside to little-known tales from their own nations. There are still four months remaining in the year, but African movies have already had a good year.
These are our current picks for the top 10 2023 movies that celebrate African culture
| S/N | TITLE | COUNTRY | RATINGS |
| 1 |
Augure (Omen) |
Congo | 6.4 |
| 2 |
Bravo, Burkina! |
Nigeria | 6.3 |
| 3 |
Milisuthando |
South Africa | 7.6 |
| 4 |
Mami Wata |
Nigeria | 7.2 |
| 5 |
Goodbye Julia |
Sudan | 8.1 |
| 6 |
Gangs of Lagos |
Nigeria | 6.5 |
| 7 |
Le Spectre de Boko Haram (The Spectre of Boko Haram) |
Cameroon | 7.1 |
| 8 |
Shimoni |
Kenya | 7.5 |
| 9 |
All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White |
Nigeria | 6.8 |
| 10 |
The Cemetery of Cinema |
Guinea. | 7.7 |
Augure (Omen)
Baloji, a rapper from the Congo who lives in Belgium, has created many music videos and short movies, but he’s always wanted to try his hand at directing a feature picture. The ensuing Augure (Omen) is a piece of magical realism that uses his remarkable eye for detail to explore themes of sorcery and exclusion over the course of four chapters. Baloji brought Augure (Omen) to Kinshasa after its world premiere at Cannes, where it won a New Voice Award in the festival’s sidebar program. Utopia has chosen to distribute the Belgian, Dutch, and Congolese co-production in North America, so it should become widely accessible soon.
Bravo, Burkina!
Two immigrants are followed as they settle in Italy in the movie Bravo, Burkina!, which was a standout at both the Sundance and the New African Film Festivals. In his innovative debut, Walé Oyéjidé combines his abilities as a musician and designer with his vision for what storytelling maybe when it combines a love for art with a compassionate focus on people. It’s straightforward, as Oyéjidé said to OkayAfrica because movies are the “best sandbox to play.” And while it’s evident from watching Bravo that the Nigerian filmmaker enjoyed creating this movie, along with the clothes and soundtrack, he also shows the development of his work as one of Africa’s most intriguing creative minds.
Milisuthando
The self-titled documentary by South African director Milisuthando Bongela took her 8 years to complete, and over time, she learned to let the movie develop on its own. What initially began as a thorough examination of the topic of hair evolved into a colorful visual essay on her early years and the distinctive perspective she had while growing up in one of the apartheid government’s independent homelands. The film has delighted audiences from Sundance to Encounters, where it won the Best African Feature prize earlier this month. It is complex, poetic, and full of thought-provoking ideas.
Mami Wata
For C.J. “Fiery” Obasi, this year has been pretty eventful. His third film, Mami Wata, was selected for distribution in the U.K. and the U.S., received the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, and he was also invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This visually stunning, seductive film, the third in Obasi’s burgeoning career, shows the benefits of his commitment to Nigerian cinema. Obasi has been a mainstay in Nollywood horror. Mami Wata has been making waves abroad, but in September it will return home to perform for Nigerian fans.
Goodbye Julia
Mohamed Kordofani was an engineer before deciding to follow his passion for filmmaking. This change in direction allowed him to gain a new perspective on life in Sudan. His first film, Goodbye Julia, is a fictitious story that examines ingrained prejudices and societal inequality in the context of Sudan’s tragic political instability. It is a suspenseful story that becomes more compelling as it plays out, but it also expresses the urgent need for a resolution to the nation’s complex divisions. As the head of the Un Certain Regard jury for the Cannes Film Festival, actor John C. Reilly acknowledged the film’s tremendous effect on him by naming it the winner of the “Freedom Prize.” It was also the first film from Sudan to be included in the fest’s selection.
Gangs of Lagos
Gangs Of Lagos was always going to garner a lot of interest before its premiere because it was the first original Nigerian movie on Prime Video. The dark, bloody criminal drama, which Jade Osiberu directed, has certain flaws. But it also included explosive performances from people like Tobi Bakre, Chike, Adesua Etomi-Wellington, Iyabo Ojo, and Chioma Akpotha. Gangs of Lagos elevated the action game. With is the tale of three childhood friends who climb through the ranks of one of the city’s most brutal gangs, despite the controversy surrounding its representation of the Eyo masquerade.
Le Spectre de Boko Haram (The Spectre of Boko Haram)
The Spectre of Boko Haram was tough for Cameroonian-born director Cyrielle Raingou to make. And others advised her to change the title. She persisted in doing everything necessary to enter the movie into the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), where it went on to win the festival’s prized Tiger award, despite not succeeding. The documentary follows a group of kids who create their own world among the armed violence that serves as their everyday backdrop. It is compassionately shot and clear-eyed.
Shimoni
The first film by Kenyan director Angela Wanjiku Wamai is intense to see. But Justin Mirichii, who portrays a former teacher trying to reintegrate into society after being freed from jail, gives a memorable performance. Before starting her own film, Wamai worked as an editor for other movies. And she adds her keen eye for detail to the desolate setting of Shimoni. At the New African Film Festival earlier this year, the movie had its U.S. premiere. There, it received the same kind of praise that it had at other film festivals around the world, including Fespaco, where it had won the Bronze Stallion.
All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White
A new generation of directors is working to transform how queer people have historically been portrayed in Nigerian cinema. All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White. Babatunde Apalowo’s first film is a touching picture of two men going through the infancy of a tentative relationship. All The Colours, which won a bow at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, throws these antiquated sexuality norms on their head. It joins the canon of notable movies made by brave Nollywood directors, LGBT and otherwise. Who resisted the queerphobic tropes prevalent in earlier movies. By doing this, it provides viewers with a movie that embodies the profound worth of human empathy.
The Cemetery of Cinema
What is the value of a nation’s film industry? It is priceless to Thierno Souleymane Diallo. He fervently thinks that classic movies should be archived and maintained so that we can both enjoy and learn from history. As he travels back in time while carrying a giant boom microphone. Diallo questions preconceived notions about the origins of African cinema. He records his barefoot hunt for a 23-minute movie made by fellow Guinean Mamadou Touré in 1953. It is regarded as the real first African motion picture. Having been produced a few years before Ousmane Sembène’s Barom Sarret (The Wagoner) and Paulin Soumanou Vieyra’s Afrique sur Seine. It’s an interesting, passionate adventure.
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