Teacher Guide
Learning goals, teaching notes, and answer keys.
View Teacher NotesPaper & online answer keysQueen of Katwe Movie Guide
Choose the format that fits your classroom, then explore the film through focused questions and evidence.
About the Film
Phiona develops as a chess player through practice, family negotiation, and community support. Examine opportunity and setbacks without reducing her community to a story of poverty.
Movie at a Glance
- Release year
- 2016
- Genre
- Biographical chess drama
- U.S. rating
- PG
- Runtime
- Approx. 124 minutes
- Director
- Mira Nair
- Screenplay
- William Wheeler
- Based on
- Tim Crothers’s book about Phiona Mutesi
- Music
- Alex Heffes
- Featured cast
- Madina Nalwanga, David Oyelowo, Lupita Nyong’o & Martin Kabanza
- Story setting
- Dramatized Katwe, Kampala, Uganda · 2000s–early 2010s
Check your edition when planning class periods; cuts and playback speeds can change runtime.
Content to Preview
- Poverty, food insecurity, housing instability, and family conflict.
- An accident causes injury; some intense distress and flooding.
- Sexual references involving an older sister and adult relationships.
Preview your edition, follow school viewing and permission policies, and provide an appropriate alternative assignment. Suggested grades 6–12 are Teach Arcade’s classroom recommendation, separate from the film’s U.S. rating.
Classroom Connections
Use scene evidence to explore the topics above. Pair historical portrayals with reliable sources, literary adaptations with their texts, and animated metaphors with appropriate factual context.
Film details, advisories & classroom context: Disney film information · Content advisory (spoilers)