This is a list of African Academy Award winners and nominees, which includes both ethnic African people born and/or raised in Africa and non-ethnic Africans born and raised in Africa.
| Best Actor in a Leading Role | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Role | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Laurence Harvey |  
|
Room at the Top | Joe Lampton | Nominated | First Lithuanian nominated for an Oscar. Born in Lithuania, but educated and raised in South Africa, where he joined the army. |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Role | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Janet Suzman | 
|
Nicholas and Alexandra | Alexandra Feodorovna | Nominated | |
| 2003 | Charlize Theron | 
|
Monster | Aileen Wuornos | Won | First African to win in an acting category. |
| 2005 | North Country | Josey Aimes | Nominated | |||
| 2016 | Ruth Negga |  
|
Loving | Mildred Loving | Nominated | |
| 2019 | Charlize Theron |
|
Bombshell | Megyn Kelly | Nominated | |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Role | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | Basil Rathbone |
|
Romeo and Juliet | Tybalt | Nominated | Rathbone was a South African-born British actor. |
| 1938 | If I Were King | King Louis XI | Nominated | |||
| 1948 | Cecil Kellaway | The Luck of the Irish | Horace | Nominated | ||
| 1962 | Omar Sharif | 
|
Lawrence of Arabia | Sherif Ali | Nominated | First African to be nominated for an Academy Award in any category. |
| 1967 | Cecil Kellaway |
|
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner | Monsignor Mike Ryan | Nominated | |
| 2003 | Djimon Hounsou | 
|
In America | Mateo | Nominated | First Black African to be nominated for an acting award. |
| 2006 | Blood Diamond | Solomon Vandy | Nominated | |||
| 2013 | Barkhad Abdi | 
|
Captain Phillips | Abduwali Muse | Nominated | |
| 2018 | Richard E. Grant | 
|
Can You Ever Forgive Me? | Jack Hock | Nominated | Grant is from a white British family; he was born and raised in Swaziland. |
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Role | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Lupita Nyong'o |  
|
12 Years a Slave | Patsey | Won | First black African woman to be nominated and win in any category. |
| Best Cinematography | |||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Ted Moore |
|
A Man for All Seasons | Won | Moore is a South African-born British. Won for Best Color Cinematography. |
| 1991 | Stephen Goldblatt |
|
The Prince of Tides | Nominated | Goldblatt is a South African-born British. |
| 1995 | Batman Forever | Nominated | |||
| 2002 | Dion Beebe | 
|
Chicago | Nominated | Beebe is a South African-born Australian. |
| 2005 | Memoirs of a Geisha | Won | |||
| Best Director | |||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Scott Hicks | 
|
Shine | Nominated | Hicks is a Ugandan-born Australian. |
| 1997 | Atom Egoyan |  
|
The Sweet Hereafter | Nominated | Egoyan is an Egyptian-born Canadian filmmaker. |
| Best Documentary Feature | |||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Michele Ohayon (director) | 
|
Colors Straight Up | Nominated | |
| 2012 | Malik Bendjelloul | 
|
Searching for Sugar Man | Won | |
| 2013 | Jehane Noujaim (director) Karim Amer (producer) |
|
The Square | Nominated | |
| 2020 | Pippa Ehrlich (director) James Reed (director) Craig Foster (producer) |
|
My Octopus Teacher | Won | |
| 2023 | Moses Bwayo |
|
Bobi Wine: The People's President | Pending | Shared with Christopher Sharp and John Battsek |
| Kaouther Ben Hania | 
|
Four Daughters | Pending | Shared with Nadim Cheikhrouha | |
| Best Film Editing | |||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Thelma Schoonmaker |
|
Woodstock | Nominated | Schoonmaker is from a white American family; she was born in Algeria. |
| 1980 | Raging Bull | Won | |||
| 1990 | Goodfellas | Nominated | |||
| 2002 | Gangs of New York | Nominated | |||
| 2004 | The Aviator | Won | |||
| 2006 | The Departed | Won | |||
| 2011 | Hugo | Nominated | |||
| 2015 | Margaret Sixel |
|
Mad Max: Fury Road | Won | Sixel is a South African-born Australian. |
| 2019 | Thelma Schoonmaker |
|
The Irishman | Nominated | |
| 2023 | Killers of the Flower Moon | Pending | |||
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film is awarded to a country, not to an individual, and the submitting country is the officially designated nominee in this category.
| Best International Feature Film | |||||
| Year | Country | Film | Director | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 |
|
Z | Costa-Gavras | Won | First African film to win an Academy Award. |
| 1976 | 
|
Black and White in Color | Jean-Jacques Annaud | Won | |
| 1983 |
|
Le Bal | Ettore Scola | Nominated | |
| 1995 | Dust of Life | Rachid Bouchareb | Nominated | ||
| 2004 |
|
Yesterday | Darrell Roodt | Nominated | |
| 2005 | Tsotsi | Gavin Hood | Won | First African film in a language other than French to win in this category. | |
| 2006 |
|
Days of Glory | Rachid Bouchareb | Nominated | |
| 2010 | Outside the Law | Nominated | |||
| 2014 | 
|
Timbuktu | Abderrahmane Sissako | Nominated | |
| 2020 |
|
The Man Who Sold His Skin | Kaouther Ben Hania | Nominated | |
| Best Live Action Short Film | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Meryam Joobeur |
|
Brotherhood | Nominated | Joobeur is a Tunisian-born Canadian. Shared with Maria Gracia Turgeon. | |
| Best Makeup and Hairstyling | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Trefor Proud | 
|
Topsy-Turvy | Won | Proud is the first Zimbabwean to win an Academy Award in this category. Shared with Christine Blundell. | |
| 2019 | Tristan Versluis |
|
1917 | Nominated | Versluis is a Zimbabwean-born English. Shared with Naomi Donne and Rebecca Cole. | |
| Best Original Score | |||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | Caiphus Semenya |
|
The Color Purple | Nominated | |
| 1987 | Jonas Gwangwa | Cry Freedom | Nominated | ||
| Best Original Song | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Song | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Jonas Gwangwa |
|
Cry Freedom | "Cry Freedom" | Nominated | Shared with George Fenton. |
| 2012 | Herbert Kretzmer |
|
Les Misérables | "Suddenly" | Nominated | Kretzmer is from a Jewish family. Shared with Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. |
| 2022 | Tems | 
|
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever | "Lift Me Up" | Nominated | Shared with Rihanna, Ludwig Göransson, and Ryan Coogler. |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Adapted From | Status | Milestone / Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Ronald Harwood |
|
The Dresser | The Dresser by Ronald Harwood | Nominated | |
| 1987 | Mark Peploe |
|
The Last Emperor | From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi by Henry Pu Yi | Won | Peploe is a Kenyan-born English writer. Shared with Bernardo Bertolucci. |
| 1997 | Atom Egoyan |
|
The Sweet Hereafter | The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks | Nominated | |
| 2002 | Ronald Harwood |
|
The Pianist | The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman | Won | |
| 2007 | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby | Nominated | |||
| 2009 | Neill Blomkamp |
|
District 9 | Alive in Joburg by Neill Blomkamp |
Nominated | Shared with Terri Tatchell. |
| Best Original Screenplay | ||||||
| Year | Name | Country | Film | Status | Milestone / Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Scott Hicks |
|
Shine | Nominated | Hicks is a Ugandan-born Australian. Shared with Jan Sardi. | |
