John Akomfrah

b. 1957

Sir John Akomfrah CBE is a British-Ghanaian artist, writer, film director, screenwriter, theorist and curator. He has secured a reputation as one of the UK’s most pioneering filmmakers, whose works investigate memory, postcolonialism and temporality concerning the experiences of migrant diasporas globally. Throughout his career he has grappled with race, identity and post-colonial attitudes. Akomfrah was born in Accra and moved to Britain when he was eight years old. He graduated in Sociology from Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1982. He currently lives and works in London.

Akomfrah was a founding member of London’s Black Audio Film Collective, which started in 1982 alongside artists David Lawson and Lina Gopaul. In 1998, the trio founded Smoking Dogs Films. From 2001 to 2007, he served as a Governor of the British Film Institute, and from 2004 to 2013, he served as a governor of the film organisation Film London. In 2017 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to art and filmmaking. In 2023 he was awarded a Knighthood for services to the Arts.

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