Filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako will be honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 30th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy announced on Monday. The Academy said the award recognises Sissako’s outstanding contribution to world cinema. Born in Mauritania and based in Mali, Sissako is widely regarded as one of the most significant voices in contemporary African cinema.

His debut feature Waiting for Happiness (Heremakono) was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. His 2006 film Bamako drew international attention for its bold political vision. Themes of globalisation, exile and displacement recur strongly across his body of work.

Sissako achieved wider global recognition with Timbuktu (2014), which competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His most recent feature, Black Tea (2024), was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.

Earlier, the Chalachitra Academy had announced that the Spirit of Cinema Award at the 30th IFFK will be presented to Canadian filmmaker Kelly Fyffe-Marshall. The festival is scheduled to take place from December 12 to 19.