The group was led by Clément Tapsoba, Jean Roy and Olivier Barlet, and coordinated by FESPACO executive director Gervais Hien, with the support of the French government.

An outcome of the gathering was the creation of an online user group, Africiné, composed of cultural journalists, to network and create content.

[2] In July 2003, a similar four-day working group was organised in Tunis by the Tunisian Association for the Promotion of Film Criticism (ATPCC).

An executive board was elected : The headquarters are in Dakar and Thierno Ibrahima Dia was appointed administrator of the Africiné website and moderator of the internet discussion group.

On 17 and 18 December 2015, the AFFC organised a second ordinary congress in Marrakech with some thirty participants representing fifteen member countries to amend and adopt the new statutes and internal regulations, renew the governing bodies and outline the action plan.

The Moroccan critic Khalil Demmoun was elected president and the executive board was renewed as follows: The congress also adopted a three-year action plan for the AFFC for the period 2016–2018, with the objective of animating the life of the federation and the implementation of its mission to support African cinema.