Fanta Régina Nacro studied at the African Institute for Cinematic Studies (INAFEC), the national film school of Burkina Faso, and the Sorbonne in Paris, where she earned a Master’s Degree in Film and Audiovisual Studies.

She is the first Burkinabe woman to direct a dramatic film, the short Un certain matin (1991), and has made many shorts which address the AIDS epidemic in Africa, including Vivre Positivement (1993). Her short films Puk Nini (1996) and Un certain matin have been hailed as representing the “African New Wave.” Her last short for the Mama Africa series, A Close-Up on Bintou (2002), won more than twenty prizes in international festivals, and her first feature The Night of Truth(2004) was featured in the touring program of the Global Film Initiative and received screenwriting honors at the San Sebastian Film Festival.