Fifteen restored African films are now free to stream worldwide today, May 11, 2026, as TV5MONDE+ launches a Cinémathèque Afrique section on its global streaming platform. The launch is timed to the opening day of the Africa Forward Summit, the France- and Kenya-convened gathering of African heads of state and government, held in Nairobi today and tomorrow, May 12, 2026.
"Africa is home to dozens of great masters of cinema whose works are of exceptional richness," said Kim Younes, CEO of TV5MONDE. "TV5MONDE's partnership with the French Institute allows, for the first time, online access and worldwide visibility to this heritage of universal value."
The first wave dates from 1955 to 1992 and includes works of fiction, documentary, and animation:
- "Afrique sur Seine" (Senegal, 1955) — Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and Mamadou Sarr
- "Lamb" (Senegal, 1963) — Paulin Soumanou Vieyra
- "Le Retour d'un aventurier" (Niger, 1966) — Moustapha Alassane
- "Concerto pour un exil" (Ivory Coast, 1967) — Désiré Écaré
- "Mouna ou le rêve d'un artiste" (Ivory Coast, 1969) — Henri Duparc
- "À nous deux, France!" (Ivory Coast/France, 1970) — Désiré Écaré
- "Nationalité : immigré" (Mauritania/France, 1975) — Sidney Sokhona
- "Les Princes noirs de Saint-Germain-des-Prés" (Senegal/France, 1975) — Ben Diogaye Beye
- "Samba le Grand" (Niger, 1977) — Moustapha Alassane
- "La Chapelle" (Republic of the Congo, 1979) — Jean-Michel Tchissoukou
- "La vie est belle" (DRC/Belgium, 1987) — Mweze Ngangura and Benoît Lamy
- "Bal poussière" (Ivory Coast, 1988) — Henri Duparc
- "Tabataba" (Madagascar, 1988) — Raymond Rajaonarivelo
- "Le Trésor des poubelles" (Senegal, 1989) — Samba Félix Ndiaye
- "Wendemi, l'enfant du bon Dieu" (Burkina Faso, 1992) — Pierre Yaméogo
The selection draws entirely from the Cinémathèque Afrique collection, which the French Institute has held since 2011. The collection was created in 1961 and now lists more than 1,700 titles. The French Institute says it has acquired non-commercial distribution rights for over 600 films, with subtitled prints produced in several languages, and that it has restored close to 50 films and organized 1,200-plus screenings worldwide each year since President Emmanuel Macron's 2017 Ouagadougou speech on Africa policy.
"For 15 years, the French Institute has been preserving, restoring, sharing and transmitting this invaluable cinematographic heritage," said Eva Nguyen Binh, President of the French Institute. "The partnership with TV5MONDE goes further and offers the most diverse audiences a new way to access these works."
Visit TV5MONDE+ to watch the films.
Note: per the press release, the films "will be available free of charge on all continents, giving them unprecedented visibility among the general public." However, when I attempted to play several of them from the United States, the platform redirected to a sign-in page restricting access to users with a TV5MONDE USA subscription via a participating pay-television operator — Cox, Dish, Optimum, Xfinity, Sling, Spectrum, Verizon, etc.
A presentation of the Cinémathèque Afrique section for industry will follow at Cannes on May 17 at 12:30 pm at the French Institute space on the Critics' Week Beach.
The Africa Forward Summit is a two-day meeting co-hosted by Kenya and France in Nairobi, under the title "Africa–France Partnerships for Innovation and Growth." It is co-chaired by Kenyan President William Ruto and French President Emmanuel Macron. The program runs over two days across two venues: the Kenyatta International Convention Center and the University of Nairobi. Topics on the agenda include energy, finance, agriculture, AI, the blue economy, health, and industrialization.
