Ethiopian cinema, like the country’s whole film industry, is a very recent development. The film business in Ethiopia is booming, but it is beset by challenges that prevent it from reaching its full potential. Ethiopians have traditionally preferred live stage theater, resulting in a small number of relatively accomplished stage actors. Ethiopian films modernized in the 2000s by including the Amharic language, but due to widespread home video and DVD distribution, copyright infringement and piracy hampered their progress. In the early 2010s, this decreased as a result of government involvement and policy imposition. Due to a low-budget, amateurish approach, Ethiopian film production has remained low-quality in comparison to foreign premieres despite recent developments. Prior to the 1990s, there was very little data on international box office grossers. Among the most well-known people who have helped Ethiopian films reach international popularity are Haile Gerima, Salem Mekuria, Yemane Demissie, and Teshome Gabriel.
In the 2000s, Ethiopian films were notable for their use of the Amharic language. Many directors, on the other hand, were worried about piracy as a result of DVD distribution. Between 2005 and 2012, according to the Addis Ababa Culture and Tourism Bureau, output increased from 10 to 112 films. In 2013, Ethiopia’s government announced plans to start a new film strategy in collaboration with various commercial stakeholders. Obtaining a license, expanding film schools, imposing fees, upgrading equipment, and assisting filmmakers in promoting culturally diverse productions are just a few examples. Scholars such as Aboneh Ashagrie and Alessandro Jedlowski, on the other hand, say that Ethiopian films will never reach international renown because of the amateurish style of filmmaking that deviates from international conventions. There have also been international hits like Difret (2014) and Prince of Love (2015), as well as domestic hits like Rebuni (2015) and Yewendoch Guday (2015). (2007). Berhanou Abebbé alleged in a 2003 essay for Annales d’Ethiopie that in 1898, a Frenchman brought the first film artifacts to Ethiopia and sold them to Italian minister Federico Ciccodicola [it]. Ciccodicola then presented Emperor Menelik II with a present. The Majesty saw a variety of films over the course of several decades prior to the first public cinema presentation in (1909–1910), according to historians Berhanou and Richard Pankhurst’s memoirs. In 1923, Ethiopians finished and built the first cinema.
