The 40th anniversary of FESPACO, the biennial Pan-African Film & TV Festival of Ouagadougou, which takes place from 28 February to 7 March 2009 in Burkina Faso, is calling for entries. The official competition is exclusively reserved for African and Diaspora Films in the genre of feature films, short films and documentaries.
This is the 40th anniversary of FESPACO and the 2009 edition has as its theme, “African Cinema: Tourism and Cultural Heritage’.
Tribute will be paid to the late, legendary African filmmaker, Ousmane Sembene, one of the pioneers of FESPACO. Sembene, who passed away in 2007, made 20 films, nine of which were features. Throughout his career he endeavoured to promote FESPACO and to unite filmmakers across the continent towards the development of African cinema.
FESPACO 2009 will also celebrate the 20th anniversary for the African Film Library of Ouagadougou. In addition, there will be a wide range of activities including itinerant exhibitions on FESPACO’s history and African cinema, film screenings and conferences.
The 14th African International Film and TV Market (MICA), which offers audio-visual programmes from Africa and about Africa, takes place alongside FESPACO. MIKA includes films screenings and exhibitions of film equipment.
New innovations include the relocation of the Market to a larger place, the site of the international Arts and Crafts Show of Ouagadougou (SIAO), and the organisation of a workshop on the occasion of the 20″‘ anniversary of Canal France Inter (CFI) on the theme: “Economic outlets for African audio-visual productions”.
The deadline for all application forms for MICA is 31 December 2008 and that all film festival entries must be submitted directly to the FESPACO office, as South Africa’s National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) will not be sending any entries to FESPACO on behalf of filmmakers.
For more information e-mail info@nfvf.co.za.
