The Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), in partnership with the Africa in
Motion (AiM) Film Festival, the Afrika Filmfestival of Leuven and the Verona African
Film Festival, has announced an inaugural European African Film-Festivals Award – a
special prize dedicated to East African filmmakers. ZIFF runs from 18 to 26 July
2015.
The award will provide financial support to East African filmmakers based in Africa
and around the world, selected in competition every year at ZIFF. During ZIFF 2015,
a special jury composed of members from the affiliated European African Film
Festivals will be convened for the award.
Additionally, the film that wins this award will be shown at the three European festivals in the following
year, providing opportunities for the filmmakers to be promoted and profiled.
The award is also a way to remember and honour Guido Huysmans, a special
friend of the festival who proposed the award in 2013 and unfortunately passed
away on 1 August 2014.
Lizelle Bisschoff, founder of AiM explains, “While the East African region has
previously been underrepresented in local film production in relation to the rest of
the continent, filmmaking in this region has expanded greatly over the last couple
of decades. The Zanzibar International Film Festival has been at the forefront of
showcasing this growth. We hope that this new award will further highlight the
exciting developments in the East African film industries, help to connect these
filmmakers with European film festivals as exhibition platforms, and encourage
further film production in this region.”
To compete for the award, a film must:
– Have an East African director or producer
– Be longer than 40 minutes
– Have been produced within the last two years
– Have been selected for ZIFF 2015
Any film category including feature, animation, documentary and other genres are
eligible to compete.
For more information visit the ZIFF website.
