The cinema of Mozambique (Portuguese: Cinema de Moçambique) refers to the films and the film industry of Mozambique, which creates films in Portuguese (see List of Mozambican films). Furthermore, some foreign films have been produced about Mozambique or were shot there, such as Sidney Pollack's 2005 The Interpreter, Edward Zwick's 2006 Blood Diamond, and Teresa Prata's 2007 Sleepwalking Land (Terra Sonambula), an adaptation of the novel by Mozambican author Mia Couto.
After the independence of Mozambique on June 25, 1975, the new marxist regime of the FRELIMO party invested in cinematic film production to show its own vision. It invited established European film directors like French Jean Godard (1930âÂÂ2022) and Jean Rouch (1917âÂÂ2022) to work on film and video projects in Mozambique in the years 1977-1998: Godard to research video for television and Rouch for a Super 8 film project teaching at the Communications Department of Eduardo Mondlane University, while the Portuguese-Brazilian film director Ruy Guerra (born in Maputo, 1931) worked at the Maputo (INC) founded by FRELIMO in 1976. For instance Brazilian-Mozambican director LicÃÂnio Azevedo worked with Godard and Guerra in Maputo, or at least felt the influence of Godard and Rouch. In 2003 the Portuguese film maker directed the documentary detailing the founding of the National Institute of Cinema.
Well-known Mozambican film directors include Fátima Albuquerque, LicÃÂnio Azevedo, José Cardoso (born 1939), , Sol de Carvalho (born 1953 in Beira, Mozambique), Yara Costa, Mickey Fonseca, , Rogério Manjate, Orlando Mesquita Lima (born 1962 in Nampula), Isabel Noronha, Pedro Pimenta (born 1955), Camilo de Sousa, and Lara Sousa. British film maker Karen Boswall worked in Mozambique between 1993 and 2007.
In 2016, according to the Internet Movie Database the most popular Mozambican films were the following: