News : Ecrans Noirs 2023, the great joints of the 27th Edition

Twenty-seven years after its creation, the Festival Écrans Noirs is still there and continues to bring together every year in the Cameroonian capital the best independent African cinemas. A must-see event in the local and African film landscape. This year the festival’s organizing team, led by Cameroonian filmmaker Bassek Ba Kobhio, decided to place the festival under the theme: ”Cinema in Africa still an evening school?”. A theme tribute to the famous Senegalese writer and filmmaker of late memory Sembène Ousmane who believed in his time that cinema should be an evening school to educate Africans. The theme of the festival that questions this assertion, in view of the evolution of the profession over the years, will be the subject of debates during the international symposium to be held on October 19 and 20 on the sidelines of the festival.

As every year the festival revolves around several activities that have become essential. The first is the traditional climb of the opening and closing steps of the festival that will be held this year at the Congress Hall of Yaoundé. A very popular appointment and frequented much more for its rhinestone and glitter side than for its cinematic dimension. For now, the opening film has not yet been unveiled but for the closing ceremony, it is the winning film of the Golden Screen that will be screened. And who says Golden Screens necessarily says Official Competition. This year, 46 films and series will compete in eight categories: Cameroonian Feature Films, International Feature Films, Documentary Feature Film, Central Africa Feature Film, Short Films, Series and Web Series. Cinephiles and festival-goers will have plenty to enjoy in the various venues that will certainly be known in the coming days. The jury responsible for awarding the various awards is already known.

 

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Among the other essential activities of the festival that are coming back this year, the 10 jours pour 1 film competition for 1 film organized with in partnership with the Goethe Institut de Yaoundé. This competition allows each year three young directors to benefit from support to produce a short film for 10 days. The director of the most successful film of the three receiving a training grant for Germany.

We will find the Je Pitch forum during which young producers will defend their projects with different donors.  The contest for the best screenplay of Central Africa will also take place this year with 3000 Euros of awards for the winning screenplay.

We also find this year La Nuit de la série. Every year this festival activity initiated since 2016 by producer Jean Roke Patoudem in collaboration with Canal+, A+ and Nollywood Tv, takes place in the form of a screening evening at the French Institute of Yaoundé from 8 pm. During the evening, the public has the opportunity to discover several episodes of some of the most prominent series of the moment on the continent.

Another major activity is the Kids Cinema Corner, which offers screenings of films dedicated to children. An activity that has been a real success since its launch. I can’t wait for the screenings dedicated to the hearing and visually impaired to return, as was the case several years ago, to give a more inclusive dimension to the festival.

 

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This year the festival offers innovations that reflect its intention to reinvent itself and to further conquer the audience and filmmakers.

This year, 4 films will make their national premiere during the festival. Cyrielle Raingou’s Spectre of Boko Haram who never stops winning international awards, the masterful Mon Père, le Diable by Ellie Foumbi, When the Leeves Broke by Musing Derick and Sadrack by Narcisse Wandji. It is now up to the communication teams of these films and the festival to coordinate their strategies to attract as many people as possible during these premieres.

Another major innovation this year is the birth of the Paulin Soumanou Vieyra Prize, a prize awarded by the African Federation of Film Critics (FACC). Two other activities will furnish the festival, the National and Pan-African Film and Audiovisual Production Conference from 15 to 16 October and will be organized around 03 round tables: State of the production of Central Africa; Difficulties of the independent production sector; Proposed measures for the development of the sector. Il est prévu que le contenu de ces tables rondes fasse l’objet d’une publication accessible au public. Two special days are devoted this year to two important partners of the festival Canal+ day is scheduled for October 19 and TV5Monde day scheduled for October 20. Activities that will take place in the festival village on the esplanade of the Yaoundé National Museum.

Rostand WANDJA