The Kenyan sensation Nairobi Half Life was announced the winner of the Buni TV-sponsored Audience Award at the Film Africa Festival’s closing ceremony in London on 11 November.
Nairobi Half Life, which played twice to sold-out theatres at Film Africa, was chosen by the London audience among 70 other films showing at the festival to receive the £1,000 cash prize.
Joined live by phone at his hotel in San Francisco, director Tosh Gitonga said, “I am greatly humbled! And most of all I am glad that people appreciate the film, because in real truth we do it for them. That they enjoy the experience gives me great satisfaction. Thank you for the great honour! I feel warm inside and a zest like never before to make many more films.’
The award was handed out by Buni TV CEO Marie Lora-Mungai, who said: “Buni TV is thrilled to be handing out the Film Africa Audience Award to Tosh and Nairobi Half Life. It is a fantastic film, very Kenyan and yet loved by audiences around the world, like the London crowd just showed. As a Kenyan company, we are obviously very proud to be recognising such a promising Kenyan director, and wish Tosh and his team a lot more success in the future,’ said Lora-Mungai.
The Film Africa Audience Award was one of three prizes recently sponsored by pan-African video-streaming service Buni TV (www.buni.tv). At the Africa in Motion film festival in Scotland, Buni TV and The Africa Channel handed out the Best Short Film prize to Zambian filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s Mwanza The Great, and Robinson Njenga’s film Kenji was the winner of the Buni TV Best East African Film Award at the Kenya International Film Festival in Nairobi.
