Top 10 African Netflix movies

10 best African Netflix movies

Netflix has heavily prioritized international growth lately, and Africa is not excluded.
While the majority of the African movies on Netflix are from Nigeria’s Nollywood, we’ve taken care to spread out our list to cover great movies from other African countries. After all, there are also great movies on Netflix from other African countries like Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, and many others.

1. Namaste Wahala
Namaste Wahala, which translates as 'Hello trouble', is a 2020 Nigerian cross-cultural romantic comedy film produced, written and directed by Hamisha Daryani Ahuja on her directorial debut.
The film Namaste Wahala is a movie based on the romantic relationship that exists between an Indian man and a Nigerian woman who fall in love, and how their relationship develops in the face of cultural differences and familial issues.



2. Catching Feelings
The South African film, Catching Feelings adds another dash of romance to our list while retaining a sense of sociopolitical consciousness.
The 2018 movie directed by Kagiso Lediga, focuses on a university lecturer named Max and his girlfriend Sam, who flit around Johannesburg’s cosmopolitan circles. The lives of the formerly-famous writer, 'max' and his wife 'sam' are disrupted when a famous and very self-indulgent author comes to stay with them. This places a strain on max's relationship with Sam.


3. The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Though this movie had British producers, it also had Malawian co-producers and was filmed in Malawi with more than 80% of dialog in the Chichewa language.
"The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind" dramatizes the fascinating real life story of William Kamkwamba, a renowned Malawian inventor who achieved fame by building wind turbines out of scrap parts to generate electricity for his rural family. British-born and Oscar nominated actor Chiwetel Ejiofor directs and stars in the movie, but the real star is Maxwell Simba—who plays a young version of William Kamkwamba. If looking for an inspiring and heartwarming story, check out this movie.

4. Atlantics
This 2019 movie was directed by a Senegalese named Mati Diops. Mati Diop’s film, Atlantics, generated significant buzz when it won the Grand Prix at 2019’s Cannes Film Festival. The award was a long time coming for African cinema.
Atlantics tells the story of a young woman named Ada, who was on the verge of entering an arranged marriage with a rich man named Omar, but actually loves another man named Souleiman. One day, Souleiman sets off by sea to Europe and Ada hears nothing from him thereafter. As Ada’s wedding date approaches and she longs for Souleiman, a series of events begin occurring.

5. Lionheart
Lionheart directed by the renowned Nigerian actress, Genevieve Nnaji, made waves as Netflix’s first-ever Nigerian original film production.
In this drama-comedy, a young woman named Adaeze Obiagu aspires to prove herself as a business leader at her father’s company, Lionheart. When health issues incapacitate her father, she gets a chance to showcase her skills. Facing mountains of corporate debt, Adaeze must work together with an eccentric uncle to save Lionheart from failure.


6. The wedding party
The Wedding Party is a 2016 movie directed by Kemi Adetiba. The wedding party is a big, slickly professional, colorful rom-com with a social comedy heart.
When Dunni decides to marry Dozie, her newly wealthy family decides to throw the wedding of the century. However, Dozie's family believes he's marrying beneath his status, so they elect to leave all the wedding plans to Dozie's parents.


7. The Burial of Kojo
The burial of Kojo is a Ghanian movie written and directed by Blitz Bazawule who is a Ghanian musician. Similar to Atlantics, this is another mysticism-tinged movie that raises and arguably redefines artistic standards in African cinema.
The film tells the story of Kojo, who is left to die in an abandoned gold mine, as his young daughter Esi travels through a spirit land to save him.

8. Azali
Azali was Ghana’s first-ever submission to the Best International Feature Film category at the 2018 Oscars. The film directed by Kwabena Gyansah, centers on a girl named Amina, who initially lives in a small village in northern Ghana. However, while trying to evade an arranged marriage, Amina gets thrust into the slums of Ghana’s capital city Accra, where she resorts to sex work for survival.


9. Vaya
Before making Vaya, Vaya director, Akin Omotoso spent years in story workshops with homeless residents of South Africa’s economic capital, Johannesburg. The stories he heard influenced Vaya, which powerfully interweaves three stories of South Africans who come from rural communities to fulfill personal dreams or aspirations in Johannesburg.