Biography

Akosua Adoma Owusu is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, and educator. Her cinematic essays and experimental films explore the complex intersections of identity, often portraying the ‘triple consciousness’ of African immigrants in the United States. Owusu’s work has screened extensively at festivals and venues worldwide, including the New York Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Locarno International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, BlackStar Film Festival, CCA Wattis Institute, Flaherty Seminar, Studio Museum in Harlem, Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, and African Film Festival, Inc. in New York. In 2015, IndieWire recognized her as one of six “Avant-Garde Female Filmmakers Who Redefined Cinema.”

Owusu’s films have 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) was well-received at Berlinale Shorts, winning the 2013 Africa Movie Academy Award and later screening at the 59th Venice Biennale. RELUCTANTLY QUEER (2016) was also selected for Berlinale Shorts and nominated for the Teddy Award. Her films are currently streaming on PBS, The Criterion Channel, and MUBI and are distributed by Grasshopper Films. Her work is part of the permanent collections at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Centre Pompidou, and the Fowler Museum at UCLA, among others.

Owusu has received fellowships and grants from numerous institutions, including the Film at Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists (2020), Villa Sträuli residency (2019), Goethe-Institut Salvador-Bahia (2018), Camargo Foundation (2016), Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2015), MacDowell Colony (2013), and Creative Capital (2012). She earned a BA in Media Studies and Studio Art from the University of Virginia and an MFA in Film and Video and Fine Art from CalArts in 2008.

In 2021-2022, Owusu served as the Robert Gardner Fellow at Harvard University’s Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies. She has also taught at Georgetown University, Northern Virginia Community College, Pratt Institute, National Film And Television Institute (NAFTI), and the MFA Summer Program at Bard College. In 2023, she served as an Arts Envoy for the U.S. Embassy in Ghana and has participated on juries and selection committees for numerous film organizations. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Cathy Hughes School of Communications, Department of Media, Journalism, and Film at Howard University.