NEWS : 26th edition of the Ecrans Noirs Film Festival will take place from 1st to 8 October 2022

After the pomp of the 25th edition held last year, the festival Écrans Noirs returns for its 26th edition, from 1 to 8 October 2022 in Yaoundé with a relocation to Douala scheduled from 02 to 04 November 2022. On August 23, the festival’s organizing committee unveiled the official poster for this edition, which is under the theme “Cinema, a total art”. And to talk about this total art that is cinema, the festival has chosen to gradually unveil the different articulations that will mark this year. For the moment the list of selected films is not known, it will be unveiled during the press conference of the festival on September 14.

Among the highlights of this edition, the unmissable ascents of the steps with red carpet at the opening and closing of the festival at the Palais des Congrès in Yaoundé. The music will be at the heart of the festival with 3 masterclasses given by 3 big names of Cameroonian and African music: Blick Bassy who signed the music of biopic Kankan by Joseph Akama, Elvis Kemayo and Passy. Training in film criticism is also planned for the duration of the festival. A screening space for children will also be open and accessible in the festival village located at the National Museum of Yaoundé. Other key activities will be the film market which will be held from 03 to 07 October and La Nuit de la Série Africaine which will take place on 06 October 2022 at the Institut Français de Yaoundé. Several press conferences are also on the program as well as a conversation around cinema animated by academics and the association ACIREC.

Another highlight of the festival is the programm 10 days for a film. Organised jointly by the Ecrans Noirs Festival and the Goethe Kamerun Institute, the programme funds three films by three young filmmakers under the age of thirty each year after a selection in several phases. The list of this year’s 3 finalists is already known. With the funding obtained, they will have to make 3 short films that will be presented during a special evening during the festival. The director of the best short film will get a grant to train in Germany and make another short film there.

Film screenings, a central activity of the festival, will not be left out. Throughout the 8 days of the festival, audiences, film lovers and festival-goers will be able to discover films from all over the continent. If for the moment none of the selection of films from this edition is yet known, we can already speculate on a few films whose presence should be unavoidable. We can mention among others in Cameroon, the Kankan biopic signed by Joseph Akama, which tells the life of the famous humorist Jean Miché Kankan, L’Accord de Frank Thierry Lea Malle, released a few months ago and which conquered the Cameroonian public, The HighWay by Nkeng Stephens, or the long-awaited Nganu by Kang Quintus.  On the African level we think of films such as Saloum by congolese Jean Luc Huberlot, The Gravedigger’s Wife by erythrean Khader Ayderus Ahmed who won the gold stallion at the last Fespaco or Lingui of Chadian Mahamat Saleh haroun.

Rostand Wandja