[3] Since then, the best film award has been won by directors from Cameroon, Morocco, Mali, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

At the festival's founding in 1969, five African nations: Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Niger and Senegal, were represented, as well as France and the Netherlands.

In 1983, the festival included MICA (le Marche International du Cinema et de la television Africaine), a market for African film stock and video footage.

[5] As the festival became more prominent, its budget and sponsors increased; the donor countries include Burkina Faso, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Republic of China.

[8] The delegate generals of FESPACO since 1972 have been Louis Tombiano, from 1972 to 1982; Alimata Salembere, from 1982 to 1984; Filippe Savadogo, from 1984 to 1996, Baba Hama, from 1996 to 2008, Michel Ouedraogo, from 2008 to 2014, Ardiouma Soma, from 2014 to 2020, and Alex Moussa Sawadogo,[9] from 2020 until present day.

The new headquarters of Fespaco (previously located in the premises of the Economic and Social Council near the Roundabout of the United States) and work on which began in 1994, was inaugurated in 2005 not far from the African Cinematheque.

[17] The term "Ouagawood" is a portmanteau combining Ouaga, the dimunitive of "Ouagadougou", capital of Burkina Faso, and that of another symbol of the film industry, "Hollywood" (similar to Bollywood and Nollywood).