By Ogova Ondego
Published April 13, 2013
Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF)’s 16th edition of the annual Festival of the Dhow Countries on the theme, ‘A Shared History’, is scheduled to run in the Indian Ocean archipelago June 29-July 7, 2013.
Sixteen films are expected to compete for the US$5000 Sembene Ousmane Films for Development Prize while 60 others seek to outwit one another over 12 other awards during the Awards Gala Night on July 6, 2013.
Meanwhile, ZIFF is calling for interested nationals of East Africa to apply for its Script-writing workshop to be run by Nigerian Femi Kayode. While there is no participation fee, anyone interested in the event has to apply by the April 30, 2013 deadline. Applicants have to “provide a short Bio and Filmography,500-word motivation statement, saying what [they] think about East African integration.”
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Information coming in from Zanzibar indicates that ZIFF and AITEC’s Broadcast, Film & Music Africa Conference (BFMA) “have joined forces to increase the attraction of the region for creative content stakeholders to travel to East Africa in June to ‘network, learn and do business’.”
BFMA takes place in Nairobi, Kenya, over the June 26-27 period while ZIFF runs June 29-July 7, 2013.
AITEC Chairman, Sean Moroney, says of the development, “East Africa has great potential to become a centre of innovation and content generation for the electronic media industry. By working with ZIFF our aim is to create a compelling destination for film-makers, investors and potential partners from throughout Africa and internationally. There are great synergies between the two events.”
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ZIFF, Moroney says, “is primarily focused on production end products and BFMA covers technology and business issues for the industry and content development. Together, we are able to provide an unparalleled comprehensive industry overview for one trip into the region by international participants.”
ZIFF Festival Director, Prof Martin Mhando, says the two events have a ‘vital role to play in the development of the region’s creative content industry’.
“We are delighted to be working with AITEC, reflecting the partnership approach that the industry needs to adopt across the continent. By combining forces we are projecting East Africa’s profile on the international stage to the benefit of all our stakeholders,” Prof Mhando notes.
More than 60 industry experts are expected to make presentations or lead training workshops at BFMA while 76 films from 42 countries are expected to screen at ZIFF.
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The theme of BFMA, that marks its fourth year in 2013, is ‘Innovation, investment and partnerships for local content and service excellence.” This appears to marry well with ZIFF’s ‘A Shared History‘.
