The Ecrans Noirs Film Festival 2018 [This is Culture]

The Ecrans Noirs Film that ended on July 21, 2018 in Cameroon’s capital Yaoundé is aimed at promoting African cinema.

The highlight of the festival was the closing ceremony. There was elegance all over the palais du congress where the event took place and those who attended had this to say:

‘‘It was a very beautiful experience for us, very beautiful meetings with filmmakers from Africa and elsewhere and next to a very beautiful Brazilian lady for example. A very beautiful festival. I’ve seen some beautiful movies. I even watched a movie that made me cry. I saw a very high quality Cameroonian films of young courageous producers and magnificent actors. I didn’t know that Cameroon had such dynamism in cinema,’‘ said Thomas Grand, a film director from France.

“I think the event was great. What I saw tonight is very encouraging for the film industry in Central Africa and in Africa in general. We see that many partners are interested, investing money to give prizes to people that are putting effort to develop the movie industry. So I think its very encouraging and if we continue like that, its going to strengthen the entertainment industry. And its beneficial for Africa, for our kids because we need to create content. We’re growing Africa, and we need to have more and more content for our TV,” said Patric Simo, a consultant in the banking industry,who also attended the event.

“A very beautiful festival. There were a lot of interesting films. This year really there were a lot of interesting films and it was a very good competition and the best won it is very good. I hope that next year there will still be beautiful films. And I thank the organisers for inviting us and making us spend a very good time of great meetings, exchanges and I hope that next year it will be even better,” said Habbi Touré, an actress from the Central African Republic.

Awards were given to the participants with the best works in the different categories and the Ecran d’Or, the golden screen award, went to DRC’s Machérie Ekwa Bahango for her film Mak’ila.

The Cameroonians who were awarded used the platform to express their sentiments regarding the Anglophone crisis currently going on in the country. Let’s listen to a few of them.

The event organisers were satisfied with how the festival took place and have even started planning for the 23rd edition of the festival.

This is what the founder of the Ecrans Noirs Film Festival, Basseck Ba Kobhio had to say:

“To say that if it was a success, I won’t be happy because we still have a lot to do. No. You know, work done is never perfect. There is room for improvement. There are many things to improve. But you know, what is a festival? it’s the quality of the films first, I think there were good films. It’s the quality of the guests. Everyone was nice. Even journalists like you were very nice. It’s the quality of the organization, we still have things to improve.”

The theme of this year’s edition was “cinema and politics” which the organisers say was relevant due to the current political issues in most African countries.

According to them, cinema can be part of the solution of helping to ensure that Africans have access to diverse cultures through film broadcasting which favours a better understanding of others hence help in overcoming the political and social challenges the continent is faced with. @BahatiLinnete