What Is MUBI? The Streaming Platform Black and African Film Audiences Should Know About

MUBI

You know Tubi. You may have scrolled past Hulu, Netflix and Prime Video looking for a film everybody serious about cinema seems to be discussing. Then someone says, “It’s on MUBI.”

That is usually how the introduction happens.

For many viewers, MUBI is where they first meet the films that do not always make it to the front page of mainstream streaming: a Nigerian feature, a Senegalese drama, a Berlin or Cannes title, a TIFF discovery, the kind of cinema that shows up in festival conversations long before it appears in your algorithm.

That was the experience for some of us here at Black Film Wire, too. The name came attached to an African title, to the kind of film that felt too important to be missing and yet was not on the usual platforms. And that framing, arriving next to something worth searching for rather than being promoted on its own, is actually the most accurate introduction to what MUBI is.

MUBI FILMS

"MUBI is not the streamer you open when you want the loudest trending title of the day. It is the one you open when you want to understand where cinema is actually moving."

MUBI is a curated streaming platform built for cinema lovers. Not a massive library with ten thousand titles and a recommendation engine pointing you toward whatever is trending. Instead: a carefully selected collection of films from around the world, art-house cinema, international titles, documentary, restored classics, festival darlings, emerging filmmakers and work that has earned serious attention without getting serious distribution in the United States. 

Crucially, MUBI is also a distributor and film company, not just a platform. It acquires films after festival runs and theatrical releases, which means some titles arrive on MUBI as exclusive streaming premieres. For Black and African film audiences, that matters enormously because it means MUBI is one of the few places where films from Nigeria, Senegal, Benin, Chad and the broader African diaspora have a real home after the festival circuit, rather than disappearing into a distribution gap.

My Father’s Shadow showing on MUBI

How Much Does MUBI Cost?

Pricing & Plans (US)

7-day free trial, then $14.99/monthAnnual plan: $119.88/year (equivalent to $9.99/month)Both plans include full access to the library and new releases.

Where Can You Watch MUBI?

MUBI works across most of the devices you already use. You can access it through the website or the app on:

mubi.com iPhone & iPad AndroidApple TV Amazon Fire TV Roku Chromecast Samsung & LG smart TVs Android TV

Note that availability and titles vary by country, so your catalog may differ depending on where you are watching from.

5 African, International and Black Films to Watch on MUBI

This is nowhere near a complete list. But these five titles are a strong starting point for Black Film Wire readers discovering the platform for the first time.

01

My Father's Shadow ( Akinola Davies Jr.)

Set in Lagos in 1993, this film follows a father and his two sons over the course of a single politically charged day. It made history as the first Nigerian film selected for the Official Selection at Cannes, not a sidebar, not a market screening. The main programme. If you are tracking where Nigerian cinema is going globally, this is required watching. Akinola Davies Jr. is a filmmaker who has earned his place on any list.

My Father’s Shadow showing on MUBI

02

Dahomey (Mati Diop)

Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, Mati Diop's documentary follows the return of royal treasures from France to Benin. It is about restitution, memory, cultural ownership and the strange, unfinished business of colonialism but it never lectures you. It thinks alongside you. Concise and genuinely powerful.

Dahomey  showing on MUBI

03

Coconut Head Generation (Alain Kassanda)

A documentary about Nigerian students who gather around cinema, politics and the kind of serious social consciousness that the world tends to assume young Africans are not having. The title reclaims a dismissive phrase and turns it into something generative. It is a film about what young Nigerians are actually thinking,  and it trusts its subjects completely.

Coconut Head Generation showing on MUBI

04

Bushman (David Schickele)

A recently restored film following a young Nigerian man living in San Francisco in the 1960s navigating race, immigration, romance, identity and the long shadow of the Nigerian Civil War. It is a key work in Black independent cinema and African migration storytelling, and it has taken decades to receive the re-evaluation it deserves.

Bushman showing on MUBI

05

Atlantics ( Mati Diop)

A Senegalese-French love story about migration, labour, grief and the supernatural. Mati Diop became the first Black woman director to compete for the Palme d'Or at Cannes with this film. It is haunting, formally original and emotionally precise. One of the defining African-diaspora art-house films of the last decade and a necessary watch for anyone serious about where the form is going.

Atlantics (Atlantique) showing on MUBI

Black Film Wire Final Word

MUBI is not a replacement for the bigger platforms. It is the supplement you did not know you were missing the place where the films that matter to us are actually being held, watched and distributed seriously.

For Black and African film audiences, it has become increasingly indispensable. Nigerian, Senegalese, Beninese, Chadian, diasporic more and more of those stories are moving through festival circuits and landing here. And MUBI is building the infrastructure to receive them properly.

Start with the free trial. Go where the titles take you. And when you find something, tell somebody.