Upon winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in 12 Years a Slave in 2013, Lupita Nyong'o became only the second African actress to win the award, the first Kenyan actress to win an Oscar, and the first Mexican to win the award. She is also the fifteenth actress to win an Oscar for a film debut performance.
A year after selling out in cinemas, the 2019 Mozambican crime film Redemption, directed by Mickey Fonseca, became the first Mozambique-made film to be featured on Netflix and the first film from a Portuguese-speaking African country in its catalogue.
During filming of the 2006 Chadian war film Dry Season in N'Djamena, the crew was attacked by rebel forces, causing production to temporarily shut down and almost be abandoned. Mahamat Saleh Haroun's film went on to win the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 63rd Venice International Film Festival, as well as eight other prizes at Venice and the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou.
After winning top prizes at festivals including FESPACO and Locarno International Film Festival for his films Guimba the Tyrant and Genesis, Malian film director Cheick Oumar Sissoko became Mali's Minister of Culture in 2004.