Festival director Fabrizio Colombo says that this year’s selection process was incredibly difficult due to the incredible amount of submissions, over 600, and the calibre and quality of the films across the genres of documentary, feature, and short.
“It has been really hard to make a selection from so many submissions to our festival. However, the amount of good films from all over the world is also a sign of how much
ZIFF is considered one of the greatest festival in the African continent and internationally," adds Colombo.
Filmmakers from over 70 countries submitted films and amongst those countries represented in the final selection are Kenya, Canada, Spain, France, South Africa, Tanzania, India, Australia, the United States, Nigeria, Rwanda, Brasil, Ghana, Chad, Uganda, Mozambique, Hungary, the United Kingdom, and Ethiopia, amongst others.
Films will compete in various categories, including the official
ZIFF awards of the
Golden Dhow, the
Sembene Ousmane Award,
Best African Film,
The Adiaha Award for
Best African Female Documentary Filmmaker,
Best International Film,
Best Film from the Dhow Countries, the
Emerson of Zanzibar award and the
Trace East African Music Award, amongst a host of others.
The
ZIFF opening night will see the world premiere of the Tanzanian comedic feature film,
T- Junction, directed by Amil Shivji. The film includes some new acting faces and is a look at modern urban life in Tanzania. The film stars Magdalena Christopher and Hawa Ally as the two girls at the centre of the story.
Other highlights in the selection include Mbithi Masya’s feature film
Kati Kati, a Kenyan film that won the
Prize of the International Film Critics at the
Toronto Film Festival, Florian Schott’s
Katutura, one of the few feature films to come out of Namibia, and
Klumeni, a new style of bongo movies from director Ernest Napoleon.
ZIFF will also include
Winnie, the newest documentary on Winnie Mandela to come out of South Africa, directed by Pascale Lamche. Another inclusion in the schedule sees the return of well-known documentary filmmaker, Nick Broomfield, to
ZIFF with his latest documentary on Whitney Houston,
Whitney: Can I Be Me.
The Ivory Game is another Netflix documentary from executive producer Leonardo di Caprio and directors Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani and will also be screened at this year’s festival.
Multiple venues across Stone Town will see over 100 films screened during the nine-day
ZIFF festival in its 20
th-anniversary edition.
ZIFF 20
th also opens a new section dedicated to African Film Schools. A selection of 15 films will be announced soon and screened during the festival. The best one will be awarded during award night.
For more information, visit
www.ziff.or.tz. Alternatively, connect with them on
Facebook.