Mamadou Dia is a Senegalese film writer and director. A NYU Tisch graduate, he writes and directs films based on his life growing up in West Africa, exploring the tension between fact and fiction, realism and abstraction.His first feature, BAAMUM NAFI/NAFI’S FATHER (2019), was awarded a dozen prizes, including two Golden Leopards for First Feature and Filmmakers of the Present at the Locarno International Film Festival. Selected for MOMA/Lincoln Center 2020 New Directors/New Films, the 2019 TIFF Talent Lab and the 2018 Hubert Bals writing grant, BAAMUM NAFI is Senegal’s Oscar entry for 2021.His latest short, SAMEDI CINEMA, premiered at the Venice and the Toronto International Film Festivals in 2016 and has since received dozens of awards. As the co-founder of the production company Joyedidi, they toured Senegal with a mobile screen sharing the feature film with audiences across his native country.