Bachelor of Arts
Media Studies and Studio Art
University of Virginia
2005
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Faculty
Faculty
Akosua Adoma Owusu ( she/her)
Assistant Professor of Film
Department/Office
- Media, Journalism, Film & Communication
School/College
- School of Communications
Biography
Akosua Adoma Owusu is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and educator whose films explore diasporic identity, memory, and belonging through the lens of triple consciousness. Her work examines the layered realities of African, American, and transnational experience across experimental cinema, documentary, and narrative forms.
Her films have screened extensively at festivals and institutions worldwide, including the New York Film Festival, Berlinale Shorts, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Locarno Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, and the National Gallery of Art.
Her work has been featured in ARTFORUM, Frieze, e-flux journal, Black Camera, Film Comment, and the International Review of African American Art. Her film Kwaku Ananse (2013) won the Africa Movie Academy Award and later screened at the Venice Biennale. Reluctantly Queer (2016) premiered at Berlinale Shorts and was nominated for the Teddy Award. Her films are held in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, and the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
Owusu is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Creative Capital award, and the Film at Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists. She has participated in residencies at the Camargo Foundation, Villa Sträuli, MacDowell, and the Goethe-Institut Salvador-Bahia, and served as a U.S. Arts Envoy in Ghana.
In 2021–2022, she was the Robert Gardner Fellow at Harvard University’s Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies.
She is currently an Assistant Professor of Film at Howard University and the founder and artistic director of Black Light: A Howard Short Film Showcase, an independently produced, faculty-led public screening program presented through her company, Obibini Pictures. She is also the founder of Save the Rex, an initiative to revive the historic Rex Cinema in Accra, Ghana as a space for film, culture, and public dialogue.
Education & Expertise
Education
Master of Fine Arts
Film and Video
California Institute of the Arts
2008
Master of Fine Arts
Fine Art
California Institute of the Arts
2008
Expertise
Directing, Producing, Cinematography, Editing, Sound design, Narrative Film Production, Experimental Filmmaking, Documentary Production, Direct Animation Techniques
Academics
Academics
RTFG 500-01 Film History
RTFG 700-01 African American Cinema
MJFC 349-01 Directing for Film & TV
MJFC 200-04 Intro to Media Production
MJFC 223-03 Film & TV Production
MJFC 225 History of Broadcast & Film
Accomplishments
Accomplishments
Selected
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2022 Film Study Center Fellowship, Harvard University
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2022 59th Venice Biennale, Italy
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2021-2022 Robert Gardner Film Study Fellowship, Harvard University
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2020 Lincoln Center Awards for Emerging Artists
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2019 Villa Sträuli filmmaker-in-residence, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
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2019 Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Prize, Locarno Film Festival
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2019 Special Mention, Videoex International Experimental Film & Video Festival
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2018 Goethe-Institut Vila Sul Artist-in-Residence, Salvador-Bahia, Brazil
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2018 Oberhausen Film Seminar Fellowship
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2016 Best International Short, Baltimore International Black Film Festival
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2016 Camargo Foundation Residency
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2015 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
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2015 Tribeca All Access Grant
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2013 MacDowell Colony Fellowship
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2013 Arte France International Prize, Durban FilmMart
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2013 Africa Movie Academy Award
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2012 Tom Berman Award for Most Promising Filmmaker, Ann Arbor Festival
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2012 Art Matters Grant
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2012 Locarno Film Festival, Open Doors co-production lab
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2012 Sarah Jacobsen Film Grant
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2012 Creative Capital Foundation Film/Video Fellowship
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2011 Focus Features Africa First Award
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2011 Best Experimental Short, Expresion en Corto Film Festival
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2010 Produire au Sud Workshop, Nantes, France
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2010 Featured Artist, 56th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar
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2009 Best Documentary Short, Chicago Underground Film Festival
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2009 Best Documentary Short, Athens International Film & Video Festival
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2008 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Grant, CalArts
Publications and Presentations
Publications and Presentations
Selected
Moses, Serubiri (2023), e-flux journal issue #137 (June 2023) "Reluctantly Queer Akosua Adoma Owusu and Kwame Edwin Otu"
U.S. Embassy Ghana (2023), "U.S. and Partners Celebrate International Women’s Day"
U.S. Embassy Ghana (2023), "Women in Motion Film Festival Accra"
Tsang, Miguel (2023), West Potomac: The Wire. "Celebrated Alexandria Filmmaker Visits West Po"
Guest, Haden (2022), Harvard Film Archive. "An Evening with Akosua Adoma Owusu"
MUBI Specials (2022), "Akosua Adoma Owusu: The Hair Trilogy"
Dozier, Ayanna (2022), Program notes. "Alchemy Film & Arts Focus: Akosua Adoma Owusu"
Peterson, Vanessa (2022), Frieze. "Preview of the 2022 Venice Biennale Part Two: ‘The Milk of Dreams"
Peterson, Vanessa (2022), Frieze. "The Collective Feminist Agency of ‘The Milk of Dreams"
Harvard University Robert Gardner-FSC Fellowship (2021). "Akosua Adoma Owusu Names 2021-22 Gardner Fellow"
The Criterion Channel’s February 2021 Lineup (2021). "Short Films by Akosua Adoma Owusu Featuring a new introduction by the filmmaker"
PBS Episode 5 (2020), "Lincoln Center Awards for Emerging Artists 2020"
Nguyen, Kim (2019), CCA Wattis Institute. "Akosua Adoma Owusu: Welcome to the Jungle"
Robinson, Kristina Kay (2019), Burnaway. "Good Hair: Akosua Adoma Owusu at the CAC, New Orleans"
Siegel, Josh (2019), MoMA. "Screening: Akosua Adoma Owusu: Welcome to the Jungle"
Johnson, Grant (2019), Artforum. "Interview: Akosua Adoma Owusu talks about triple consciousness"
Collymore, Nan (2019), Contemporary&. "Akosua Adoma Owusu: Welcome to the Jungle Beauty and Power in Black Hair Culture"
American Documentary (2019), "Queer Shorts: Reluctantly Queer"
Sullivan, Dan (2019), Film Comment. "Rotterdam 2019 Dispatch"
Young, Neil (2019), Modern Times Review. "Above us, About us: Two new documentaries from Rotterdam"
Sicinski, Michael (2019), Letterboxd. "Review: Pelourinho, They Don’t Really Care About Us"
Hotchkiss, Sarah (2019), KQED. "At the Wattis, the Aftermath of an Invasion and a Kaleidoscope of Black Experience"
Garcia, Jemina (2018), FEM Magazine. "The Triple Consciousness of ‘On Monday Last Week’ (2018)"
Gill, Qila (2018), BFI London. "Pain, pansexuality and afrofuturism: 3 films about the body"
Evans, Bec (2017), DAZED. "Ten experimental filmmakers tackling the world’s big topics"
Ewins, Michael (2016), Sight & Sound Magazine. "BFI: The best films of 2016"
Cameron, Ewan (2016), Little White Lies. "Every film by a black director at the 2016 BFI London Film Festival"
Bode, Katie (2015), Contemporary Art Review. "Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Akosua Adoma Owusu at Art + Practice"
Rochester Art Center (2015), Media Beat. "Akosua Adoma Owusu: Existential Crisis"
James, Jamillah (2015), Hammer Museum. "Off-Site Program: In Conversation: Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Akosua Adoma Owusu"
James, Jamillah (2015), Art+Practice. "In Conversation: Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Akosua Adoma Owusu with Jamillah James"
Page, Aubrey (2015), Indiewire. "6 Avant-Garde Female Filmmakers Who Redefined Cinema"
AFP - Agence France Press (2013), "Filmmaker hoping to rejuvenate Ghana's dilapidated old cinemas"
Sutton, Kate (2013), Artforum. "CRITICS’ PICKS: Akosua Adoma Owusu Art+Practice"
Kendall, Nzingha (2013), Black Camera. "Commentary: Haunting in Akosua Adoma Owusu’s Short Experimental Films" p. 232-236
Finkelstein, David (2011), Film Threat. "DREXCIYA"