With more than 3,300 films a year, West Africa is the continent’s leading region in film production. This development is not only due to the Nigerian film scene Nollywood, but also significantly to the largest and most renowned pan-African film festival Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou (FESPACO), which takes place every two years in the Burkinabe capital Ouagadougou. Since its foundation in 1969, it has made a significant contribution to making African films accessible to a broad audience and celebrating the cultural diversity of the continent. The festival attracts filmmakers, actors and film enthusiasts from all over the world and provides a platform for the exchange of ideas and creative innovations.

Alex Moussa Sawadogo has been the director of the FESPACO festival since 2020 and is committed to international cooperation, especially with the African diaspora, as well as to promoting the francophone film scene. Other focal points of his work are changing the image of Africa through the medium of film, German-African cooperation in the film and cultural scene and the promotion of African talent, for which he is involved in numerous projects and initiatives. In 2007, he founded the Berlin film festival AFRIKAMERA and has been its artistic director ever since.

The AFRIKAMERA counteracts the lack of presence of current African filmmaking in Berlin and contrasts the diverse facets of everyday life in Africa with stereotypical images here. In addition, AFRIKAMERA serves the intercultural dialogue between Africa and Germany and is an important place for networking and exchange between cultural and film makers and the interested public. As director, it thus makes a decisive contribution to giving German audiences access to films produced in Africa and to changing the image of Africa in Germany. With various other projects, such as the Ouaga Film Lab, which he has been directing since 2016, and the Jeune Création Francophone fund, which he founded at the beginning of 2018, he also supports the promotion of new talent and is thus involved in the discovery and training of a new generation of African filmmakers.

Against this background, the German Africa Foundation honoured Alex Moussa Sawadogo with the Honorary Award of the German Africa Foundation. The award was made in recognition of his outstanding commitment to the African film and cultural scene and his great dedication to changing the image of Africa through the medium of film.

Programme

Welcoming remarks

Dr forest Christoph Hoffmann MP, Member of the Board of the German Africa Foundation (download speech)

Laudatory speech

Dr. Uschi Eid, President of the German Africa Foundation (download speech)

In Conversation

Honorary Laureate Alex Moussa Sawadogo, moderated by Sabine Odhiambo, Secretary General of the German Africa Foundation

Congratulatory remarks

Kirsten Krampe, Head of Africa Department, Heinrich Böll Foundation