Awards: Ciné 229, Beninese Film Awards Ceremony

Ciné 229 has undertaken for 4 years to highlight and reward actors and technicians of Beninese cinema. An initiative led by director Kismath Baguiri and whose nominees for the 2020 edition are already known.

In terms of film production, Benin is not among the very prolific African countries. When talking about this country, two names come to mind: Jean Odoutan (Barbecue Peujeot – 1999, Pim Pim Tchié – 2010) creator of the Quintescence de Ouidah festival and Sylvestre Amoussou (Africa Paradis – 2006, L’orage Africain: un continent sous influence – 2017). Yet there is a new generation of young filmmakers in this country who are trying to bring a new strain to the local cinema and to put their names on the same level as these two elders mentioned above. Director Kismath Baguiri has decided to highlight and reward these young actors and technicians who are bringing a new strain into this country’s cinema by setting up the Ciné 229 Awards initiative.

Ciné 229 Awards was launched in 2017 by Beninese Director Kismath Baguiri (Heath War – 2015, Suru – 2018) with the aim of celebrating young Beninese film talents who do not always enjoy enough visibility and whose work is rarely valued. According to the Promoter, the awards ceremony therefore aims to reward actors and technicians in various categories. The specificity of this event is that only short films are taken into consideration to determine the people to be rewarded.

Interview with the Festival Promoter:

The organising committee of this festival unveiled on its Facebook page on 2 and 3 December the different personalities nominated for this evening of awards. The jury of this edition will be chaired by Ignace Yechenou, Actor, Director and Producer. He will be accompanied by Florisse Adjanohoun, Actress and Tiburce Bocovo, Director. In addition this year the Ivorian director Alex Ogou to whom we owe the Invisibles and Cacao series will be the guest of honor and will host a masterclass on December 11, 2020 at the Canal Olympia Wologuede cinema.