Cinema of Burkina Faso

It is the largest film exhibition venue in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than half a million attendees, and takes place in odd numbered years in March.

For many years the headquarters of the Federation of Panafrican Filmmakers (FEPACI) was in Ouagadougou, rescued in 1983 from a period of moribund inactivity by the enthusiastic support and funding of President Thomas Sankara.

Between 1977 and 1987 Burkina Faso housed a regional film school, Institut d'Education Cinématographique de Ouagadougou (INAFEC), which was instigated by FEPACI and funded in part by UNESCO.

[5] Many films shot in Burkina Faso by local directors have found distribution in Francophone Europe and several have received assistance from the French Ministry of Co-operation.

In 2005, director Gaston Kaboré, who won the top prize at FESPACO in 1997 for his film Buud Yam, opened a training school for new filmmakers in Ouagadougou.