The Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) has been supported by GIZ for many years on behalf of the German Government. ZIFF is the largest multi-disciplinary art and cultural festival in Eastern Africa.
In 2023, it received more than 2,800 submissions by filmmakers and 107 films were selected and shown at ZIFF. “Finding Identity” (Kujitambua) was the overall theme for this year, promoting African values that resonate with an African identity and strengthen a distinct African cinema language.
Movies are a key instrument for expressing one’s own culture and tap into the culture of others. Hence, they are also a distinct tool to foster social regional and continental integration, if only in the heads of their audience.
The 9-day event in Stone Town creates a space for East African filmmakers to connect and stay connected to the world, it reinforces professional filmmaking and production skills through workshops and promotes the use of films for social and political change.
GIZ’s contribution was rendered to the Ousmane Sembène Award. This award is dedicated to short movies telling African stories and values. The Ousmane Sembène Jury awarded three winners with a prize money of EUR 3.000 each. All winning movies are short movies produced by African film makers.
This year, the three winning movies originated from Tanzania (Katope), Kenya (Mawimbi) and Egypt (Neb Tawy). More information on the winning movies as well as other nominations can be found here.
GIZ would like to extend its warmest congratulations to all the nominees and winners.
Photo: ©ZIFF