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Filmmaker Akin Omotoso’s latest film Vaya first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016 to critical praise and continued to make its rounds around the festival circuit and earned him the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Director before landing at Ava DuVernay’s Array. The film is set for a screening tour and a simultaneous Netflix release today but none of this would have never happened because Omotoso initially wanted to be…a lawyer.

Omotoso tells Deadline with a laugh that while in school his guidance counselors said, “You like to argue a lot, so maybe you should be a lawyer, so I had this thing in my head that I was gonna be a lawyer.”

“When I look back now, I just feel like I would have been a very unhappy lawyer,” he admits.

Born in Nigeria, Omotoso moved to South Africa and despite having his...

Berlin’s Panorama lineup also includes new films from Us, China and Brazil.

Berlin’s Panorama strand is now complete following the addition of 24 additional titles.

A total of 51 works from 43 countries have been chosen for screening in the section, including 21 in Panorama Dokumente and 29 feature films in the main programme and Panorama Special. 36 of these films will be getting their world premieres at the Berlinale.

The German production Tiger Girl by Jakob Lass will open this year’s edition of Panorama Special at Berlin’s Zoo Palast cinema, along with the previously announced Brazilian production Vazante.

Among newly confirmed films are UK Sundance title God’s Own Country, Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, Cate Shortland’s Berlin Syndrome, feminist fairy tale The Misandrists by Berlinale regular Bruce Labruce, Erik Poppe’s The King’s Choice and Belgian-French-Lebanese co-production Insyriated which stars Hiam Abbass as a woman trapped in an apartment during war.[p...

If you live in NYC, I cannot encourage you enough to go check out this film, before it leaves! Award-winning filmmaker Sara Blecher's "City of God meets Blue Crush" South African coming-of-age drama Otelo Burning is a gripping story of township kids as they discover surfing, set in late 1980s, against the backdrop of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. It opened quite strong about 2 weeks ago at New York’s new cinemas at Mist Harlem - and affair that I was present for and moderated the Q&A that followed, with the filmmaker, and one of the stars of the film, Sihle Xaba! And...