Matthias De Groof

Dr. Matthias De Groof is a film scholar and curator specializing in African cinema, postcolonial theory, and Anthropocene studies. He earned Master’s degrees in Philosophy, International Relations, Cinema Studies, and African Studies from institutions including KU Leuven, UC Louvain, University of Antwerp, and Uganda Martyrs University.

His research focuses on African cinematic expressions of the Anthropocene, examining how Global South communities experience and represent environmental precarity. He is an editor of Lumumba in the Arts (Leuven University Press, 2020) and has published in Third Text, Black Camera, and Visual Anthropology.

Key themes in his work include:

• Postcolonial critique of environmental narratives
• Decolonizing ethnographic film practices
• Curatorial activism in cinema
• Intersections of art and political resistance

He has received prestigious fellowships including Fulbright and BAEF, and his award-winning films have premiered at festivals such as IFFR, Cannes Pan-African Film Festival, and FIFA.