Congolese-Belgian rapper, actor, and filmmaker Baloji’s first feature, Omen, elevates a dizzying storytelling full of magical realism, chromatic punch, rituals, and cultural superimpositions.

Propelled by its strong female leads, the winner of the Freedom Prize at last year’s Cannes elevates a pivotal moment of Sudan’s recent history into a tale of fragile bonds and necessary emancipation.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell offers mesmerizing images and relies on quiet symbolism to communicate the fluid boundary of realism and surrealism.

The raw and immersive film, which was awarded Best Feature Documentary at the 12th BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia in August, chronicles the ordeal faced by the nursing home’s residents, whom authorities treated as collateral damage and cannon fodder during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ashkal won the highest award at the Pan-African Fespaco Film Festival. It premiered at the 2022 Cannes festival Directors’ Fortnight. Screened at MoMA’s New Directors festival last April, it will be distributed in US cinemas this summer.

The latest two films of Cambodia-born filmmaker Rithy Panh, Everything Will Be OK (2022) and Irradiés (2020), are premiering in North America at MoMA, as part of the first-ever retrospective of his 30-year-long career.

Without dialogue, the short film Afrique sur Seine presents slices of African life, shifting from the river banks of the Niger to the Seine and the Latin Quarter of Paris, culminating in an aperçu of 1950s city life from dawn to dusk.

Beyond ethnic and racial representation on screens, failure to acknowledge critically appraised films raises the issues of dominant narratives in creative industries. Overlooking The Gravedigger’s Wife is yet another missed opportunity for the Oscars, which could have made history by offering a stage to new, crucial voices.

The documentary The Art of Sin depicts an openly gay Sudanese man’s return home and navigates the personal and cultural ramifications of his sexual identity.