Ethiopian cinema opened in 1898, three years after the world’s first film was shown on December 25, 1895. However, as a result of continuous sociopolitical unrest, the growth rate has slowed dramatically. The Ethiopian film industry, which has been associated with cultural, religious, and national backgrounds for decades due to political pressure, has advanced historical and documentary films. In a 2003 article for Annales d’Ethiopie, Berhanou Abebbé claimed that a Frenchman brought the first cinematic artifacts to Ethiopia in 1898, which he sold to Italian minister Federico Ciccodicola. Ciccodicola then made a present to Emperor Menelik II. The Majesty saw various films over decades, according to historians Berhanou and Richard Pankhurst’s writings, before the first public film screening in (1909–1910). Ethiopians completed and built the first cinema house in 1923. MM. Baicovich owned the first cinema house, Pate, from 1909 to 1910, according to Berhanou. People were unsatisfied with seeing movies during the earliest period of cinema’s arrival. “People obviously didn’t like to entertain themselves,” Berhanou quoted French historian Merab in Impressions d’Ethiopie (1922). Before the 1990s, nothing was known about foreign grossing films. Haile Gerima, Salem Mekuria, Yemane Demissie, and Teshome Gabriel are among the most well-known figures who have helped Ethiopian films gain international prominence.
Ethiopian films in the 2000s were notable for their use of the Amharic language. However, several filmmakers were concerned about piracy as a result of DVD distribution. Addis Ababa is home to a large portion of the country’s film industry.
