Abstract
This article problematises the universally used phrase ‘African cinema’ and explores how it
can be examined in terms of a film services framework, which includes both industrial criteria
and ideological shifts, as a way of deepening screen media studies in searching for a more
holistic value chain framework. The main argument is that the idea of ‘African cinema’
especially as defined from racial, continental or ideological points of view, is outworn,
reductive and in need of revision. The article complements other scholarly work situated in
cinematic fact contexts of production.