Mbithi Masya is a Pan-African director working across narrative cinema, commercials, and visual art.
His work draws from the space between reality and the surreal, melting emotion, memory, and imagination together. Across his narrative and commercial projects, Mbithi is interested in intimate human stories told across different canvases, presented with restraint, cultural specificity, and a quiet sense of magic.
His debut feature film, Kati Kati, produced by the acclaimed German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, premiered to critical acclaim. The film received the FIPRESCI Award in the Discovery Programme at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the jury described Mbithi as ‘an exciting and unique new voice in cinema.’
Kati Kati went on to win the New Voices/New Visions Award Special Mention at the Palm Springs International Festival, the Filmpris at the 19th CinemAfrica Film Festival in Stockholm, the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the 2017 Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival, and the Best East African Film award at the 2017 Africa Movie Viewers Choice Awards.
His short film, BABA, had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was awarded the Baobab Prize for Best Short Film at the Film Africa Festival in London.
Mbithi has also directed award-winning commercials and branded films for some of the continent’s most prominent brands and institutions, including Girl Effect, Equity Bank, Betika, Safaricom, Barclays, Coca-Cola, Oracle Kenya, Google Kenya and Airtel. His commercial work shares the same sensibility as his narrative films, emphasising humanity, truth, and craft.
As an artist, Mbithi is a member of the acclaimed experimental art collective, JUST A BAND, known for its genre-blending music, video art, and multimedia practice. As part of the collective, he has participated in international video art exhibitions, including KUDISHNYAO! at Rush Gallery in New York. His music video work has earned him recognition from local and international press, including the the New York Times, Fader, Huffington Post and Okay Africa, as well as a Google spotlight during the launch of YouTube Kenya.
