The Criterion Collection
The Daily
Jan 26, 2024 — We gather essays and interviews related to series spotlighting Ousmane Sembène, Serge Daney, Skip Norman, Iranian cinema, and the Oscars.
The Daily
Sep 8, 2023 — We’re celebrating Ousmane Sembène’s centennial, reading interviews with Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Kasi Lemmons, and watching soundies.
Essays
Jan 23, 2017 — In his radical debut feature, Ousmane Sembène reveals the agony of the postcolonial experience through the story of a Senegalese migrant abused by her French employers.
The writer and director reflects on the influence that Melvin Van Peebles had on him when he was a film student, talks about how Ermanno Olmi and Ousmane Sembène made films that speak to humanity, and selects favorites such as...
The director of Compensation shares what Bruce Lee’s films taught her about cinematic movement, praises Sarah Maldoror’s revolutionary Sambizanga, and shouts out filmmakers she loves, from Cauleen Smith and Cheryl Dunye to Alice Diop and Ousmane Sembène.
The writer and director of The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman and Mambar Pierrette talks about being inspired by Ousmane Sembène and shares how Abbas Kiarostami’s films freed her to blur the boundaries between documentary and fiction.
Jun 9, 2026 — Over the course of four decades, the great Mauritanian French filmmaker Med Hondo created a stylistically diverse, politically trenchant body of work that frequently tapped into his own Pan-African roots and explored the existential and material stresses of Black people...
The Daily
May 15, 2026 — This week: Super 8 films by Teo Hernández, a new feature from Patrick Wang, and a revival of Aloïse (1975), starring Isabelle Huppert and Delphine Seyrig.
The Daily
May 6, 2026 — Erige Sehiri’s Promised Sky opens the New York African Film Festival and screens as part of Seattle’s African Pictures program.
The Daily
Feb 25, 2026 — A survey of Black cinema and memories of watching movies with John Ashbery are among this month’s highlights.