2013 Edition

Moustapha Alassane

Moustapha Alassane

Director

Niger

The first artist from sub-Saharan African who practiced animation, he also pioneered in several cinematic field not to mention his production of the first animated film in Niger, in 1963, and his direction of the first African Western animation film.

He traveled to Canada and France to study animation in the sixties and then returned to Niger to make his own films, and teaches film at the University of Niamey, where he helped in raising a generation of new African animators. He was awarded the Prize of the International Federation of animation for lifetime achievement in 2009.