Rwanda has entered the Academy Awards race for the first time, selecting Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s film Ben’Imana as the country’s official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Oscars. The submission caps an extraordinary year for the Kinyarwanda-language drama, which made history at the Cannes Film Festival in May before travelling to some of the world’s major film festivals. At Cannes, France, Ben’Imana became the first film by a Rwandan director to enter the festival’s Official Selection. ALSO READ: Dusabejambo’s film ‘Ben’Imana’ lands top prize at Cannes Festival It went on to win two major honours including the Caméra d’Or for best first feature and the FIPRESCI Prize awarded by international film critics. What is Ben’Imana about? Set in Rwanda in 2012, 18 years after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, Ben’Imana examines what reconciliation means when survivors and families of perpetrators must continue living alongside one another. At the centre of the story is Vénéranda, a Genocide survivor who believes strongly in the community processes established to help people pursue justice, confront the past and rebuild their lives. She facilitates difficult conversations between survivors and families of perpetrators, convinced that dialogue is necessary for communities to move forward. The film particularly focuses on women and the burden they carried in rebuilding families and communities after the Genocide. Ben’Imana runs 101 minutes, or one hour and 41 minutes, and is predominantly in Kinyarwanda. The film is an international co-production involving Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway and Côte d’Ivoire, with Rwandan company Ejo Cine among its producers. Dusabejambo wrote the screenplay with Delphine Agut, who is also credited as a co-writer in several festival programmes. Egyptian cinematographer Mostafa El Kashef shot the film, Rwandan musician Igor Mabano composed the music, while Nadia Ben Rachid handled editing. The cast The principal cast is led by Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi, who plays Vénéranda, the survivor and reconciliation advocate at the centre of the story. Kesia Kelly Nishimwe plays her daughter Tina, whose pregnancy becomes the catalyst for the family's personal reckoning, while Isabelle Kabano plays Suzanne. Other cast members include Leocadie Uwabeza, Antoinette Uwamahoro, Aime Valens Tuyisenge, Arivere Kagoyire, Hamida Uwimana, Adelite Mugabo and Clemence Murorunkwere. Who is Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo? An electronics and telecommunications engineer by training, she is a self-taught filmmaker whose journey in cinema began around 2008. Her early career was largely built around short films examining identity, exclusion, memory and the experiences of people living on the margins of society. Her first short, Lyiza, was presented at Tribeca and later won a Bronze Tanit at the Carthage Film Festival. She followed it with Behind the Word, and then A Place for Myself, a film about a young girl with albinism confronting discrimination. The latter collected several international prizes, including honours at the Zanzibar International Film Festival and FESPACO. Dusabejambo has additionally worked as a researcher on the documentary series Why We Hate, associated with Steven Spielberg and Alex Gibney, and worked on Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman's Neptune Frost. Ben’Imana is her first feature film. A film more than a decade in the making Although international audiences first encountered Ben’Imana this year, the project stretches back more than a decade. Dusabejambo said she and producer Marie-Épiphanie Uwayezu began working on Ben’Imana around 2014. The project then went through a lengthy international development process, including participation in programmes and film laboratories intended to help filmmakers develop scripts, secure financing and meet international producers. It passed through Ouaga Film Lab and later La Fabrique Cinéma, the Institut Français initiative attached to the Cannes ecosystem that supports filmmakers from the Global South. At Ouaga Film Lab in 2019, Dusabejambo and Uwayezu met Gabonese producer Samantha Biffot. Biffot later joined the project after reconnecting with them when Ben’Imana was selected for La Fabrique. The Cannes breakthrough Ben’Imana had its world premiere on May 19, 2026, in Cannes' Un Certain Regard section. Although films connected to Rwanda had screened at Cannes before, including Lee Isaac Chung's Munyurangabo in 2007, Ben’Imana was the first film directed by a Rwandan filmmaker to make Cannes' Official Selection. Four days after its premiere, Dusabejambo returned to the stage to receive the Caméra d’Or, Cannes' prize for the best debut feature across the festival's different selections. It was chosen from 29 eligible first films. The film also received the FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics for the Un Certain Regard section. In June, the film competed at the Sydney Film Festival, where it had its Australian premiere in the festival's Official Competition. It later screened at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic and the New Horizons International Film Festival in Poland, before travelling to the Melbourne International Film Festival. In September, Ben’Imana had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was selected in the Centrepiece programme. It subsequently screened at the Helsinki International Film Festival. Its festival itinerary has continued through Busan in South Korea, while October programmes include the BFI London Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival and Rome Film Fest, among others. It is currently screening at the BFI London Film Festival, which runs from October 7 to 18. What does it take for a film to reach the Oscars? For the Best International Feature Film category, the Academy defines an eligible international feature as a film longer than 40 minutes, produced outside the United States and its territories, with more than half of its dialogue in a language other than English. Under the rules for the 99th Oscars, countries normally choose one official film through an Academy-approved national selection committee. The film must also comply with theatrical-release requirements, provide English subtitles and meet rules concerning creative control and production. A major change this year also allows non-English-language films to qualify through specified top prizes at six recognised international festivals. Those include the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Golden Bear at Berlin, Golden Lion at Venice, TIFF's Platform Award and designated prizes at Sundance and Busan. Rwanda's route, however, is through its official national selection. Once all eligible countries have submitted their films, Academy members participate in a preliminary round. The 15 films receiving the strongest support advance to the international-feature shortlist. Members then vote again, with the top five becoming Oscar nominees. What happens next? The next significant date for Ben’Imana is December 15, 2026, when the Academy is scheduled to announce its Oscars shortlists. If Ben’Imana makes the 15-film International Feature Film shortlist, it will move into nomination voting in January. The five nominees for the category are scheduled to be announced on January 21, 2027. The 99th Academy Awards will take place on March 14, 2027, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
