Africa's sound, African film at Cannes and the World Cup kick-off

This week, Spotlight on Africa explores cinema and music scoring for African documentary projects with storytellers from Mozambique and Kenya. We will also bring you news from the Cannes Film Festival, along with the African teams selected to take part in the football World Cup.

The next time you watch a nature documentary filmed in Africa, listen carefully to the soundtrack: you might be hearing music composed in the West, a product of "parachute" filmmaking, rather than authentic sounds and locally led stories from the continent.

A group of artists, producers and organisers is working to change that through Africa Refocused, a collaboration between the National Geographic Society and Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF).

NEWF offers mentorship, professional development and laboratories that teach specialised skills such as underwater cinematography and music composition, supporting a community of more than 370 storytellers from over 35 African countries, who have created 27 films and counting.

Their goal is to bring authentic sounds to the screen, so that Africa's nature documentaries reflect the continent's rhythms, sounds and instruments.

Spotlight on Africa spoke to two storytellers leading this movement. Dércio "Muha" Gomate is a National Geographic Explorer and Mozambican composer whose work has featured internationally, including his contribution to "Nkashi: Race for the Okavango", winner of Best Original Music Score at the 2023 Jackson Wild Film Festival.

Labdi Ommes, a NEWF Fellow, is a singer-songwriter and composer from Kenya who plays the orutu, an instrument women were historically forbidden to play.

They discuss their creative process in the field and the studio, how they are reclaiming soundscapes to replace "parachute" scores with local sounds, and how the NEWF Composers Lab is opening doors for African musicians to monetise their work and gain international exposure.

Africa at Cannes 2026

Meanwhile, African films featured at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Why is African cinema out of the picture at the Cannes Film Festival?

Our culture reporter Ollia Horton met the organisers of a programme supporting women film directors and screenwriters from West Africa.

Mariama Lab is a year-long mentoring programme created by Collectif 50/50, a French organisation for gender equality, and the Mariama Institut, a film-writing residency in Mauritania.

We will hear from Mathy Mendy, a coordinator with Collectif 50/50, and from the actress and director Azata Soro.

And the World Cup!

Finally, you will hear from Paul Myers, our sports reporter, who will be covering the 2026 football World Cup for RFI English.

It starts on 11 June with a game between the co-hosts Mexico and South Africa at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City.

Africa's finest: Democratic Republic of Congo return renamed

It is the first tournament to feature 48 teams, 10 of them African, with matches played in the United States, Mexico and Canada.

This episode was mixed by Vincent Pora.