Photo courtesy of Mikko Kuutti.

Ardiouma Soma Receives the 2026 FIAF Award

On 27 April 2026, Burkinabé film archivist and festival director Ardiouma Soma was presented with the 2026 FIAF Award by FIAF President Peter Bagrov at the Cinémathèque marocaine in Rabat, during the 2026 FIAF Congress. He is the first African to receive this prestigious accolade.

Each year, FIAF honours an individual whose public impact on the field of cinema underlines the missions of our Federation, by presenting them with the FIAF Award. This Award recognizes, in particular, the recipient’s dedication and contribution to the preservation of, and access to, the world’s film heritage, for the pleasure of today’s audiences, as well as for the benefit of future generations.

Since 2001, the FIAF Award has been presented to the following figures: Manoel de Oliveira (2002), Ingmar Bergman (2003), Geraldine Chaplin (2004), Mike Leigh (2005), Hou Hsiao-hsien (2006), Peter Bogdanovich (2007), Nelson Pereira dos Santos (2008), Rithy Panh (2009), Liv Ullmann (2010), Kyoko Kagawa (2011), Agnès Varda (2013), Jan Švankmajer (2014), Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi (2015), Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (2016), Christopher Nolan (2017), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (2018), Jean-Luc Godard (2019), Walter Salles (2020), Amitabh Bachchan (2021), Tilda Swinton (2022), Guillermo del Toro (2023), Wim Wenders (2024), and David W. Packard (2025).

Ardiouma Soma’s nomination for the 2026 FIAF Award, which was proposed by Léonce Tira, Director of the Cinémathèque africaine de Ouagadougou, was the subject of a thorough review by FIAF’s Executive Committee, to which no fewer than five different nominations, all of them excellent, had been submitted. In the end, a large majority of the Executive Committee members approved Mr. Soma’s nomination, in view of all that he has achieved during his long career to advance the field of film archiving in Burkina Faso (notably through his commitment to the Cinémathèque africaine de Ouagadougou), and more broadly the preservation and promotion of Africa’s rich film heritage (in particular as Artistic Director and then Director of FESPACO, the largest film festival on the African continent).

Now retired from these official positions, Ardiouma Soma continues to be today a key player for various major festivals in Africa and around the world; he continues to work alongside the Cinémathèque africaine de Ouagadougou to raise the profile of its activities; he also supports the work of many professionals in the film and audiovisual archives sector in Africa.

Presenting Ardiouma Soma with the 2026 FIAF Award is a way for FIAF to thank him for all these amazing achievements, but also to encourage him to kindly continue playing this essential role as an ambassador for our common cause on the African continent for years to come.

Ardiouma Soma delivers his acceptance speech during the FIAF Award ceremony at the Cinémathèque marocaine in Rabat, on 27 April 2026. Photo: Mikko Kuutti.

FIAF President Peter Bagrov presents Ardiouma Soma with the FIAF Award at the Cinémathèque marocaine in Rabat, on 27 April 2026. Photo: Mikko Kuutti.

Ardiouma Soma delivers his acceptance speech during the FIAF Award ceremony at the Cinémathèque marocaine in Rabat, on 27 April 2026. Photo: FIAF.

Ardiouma Soma with the FIAF Award trophy, surrounded by Cheick Oumar Sissoko, Narjiss Nejjar, Burkina Faso’s ambassador to Morocco, Christophe Dupin, and Léonce Tira. Photo: FIAF.