Festival website records huge traffic: AFRIFF 2014

There are indications that the record of
attendees for this year’s Africa
International Film Festival (AFRIFF) will
surpass that of previous editions, with
250 applications already received within
the first week of registration.
Feelers from the festival secretariat has it
that the ongoing registration exercise has
recorded an impressive number of
requests from filmmakers in Nigeria,
Kenya, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa,
Senegal, Mali, Malawi, Uganda and
several other African countries.
Reports say the pack received so far also
includes requests from Africans in the
Diaspora as well as individual filmmakers
and film companies in Europe, United
Kingdom, United States and Canada.

For the festival which is in its fourth year,
the success story is unprecedented, even
as organisers say the best is yet to come.

Since its first edition in 2010, AFRIFF
provided free training and talent
development opportunities for young
people and aspiring filmmakers.
Interestingly, another aspect of this year’s
edition which has swelled traffic on the
festival’s website is the hands on training
and workshop on scriptwriting,
cinematography, acting and directing for
aspiring filmmakers in Africa.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AFRIFF,
Chioma Ude, noted that from this
workshop, AFRIFF is planning to take 10
students to a prestigious university in the
United States of America for further
training in various aspects of filmmaking.

She explained that through this initiative
and several others, the festival plans to
change the economic horizon of the
African film industry.
“We believe we can use this model for a
social revolution that will change the
economic horizon of the African film
industry, by providing technical
knowledge and skill to enhance the
abundant talents in our film community,”
she said.

This time, beneficiaries of the training will
be expected to shoot a short film after
their course abroad, in fulfilment of their
training billed to be entered into the
festival’s students’ short category for the
subsequent AFRIFF in 2015.

According to the festival guidelines,
registration for the workshops which
opened at the new AFRIFF website,
www.afriff.com on September 15, will
close on October 17, while general
registration will end on October 31.
AFRIFF 2014 is scheduled to take place at
the popular Tinapa Business and Leisure
Resort, Calabar, Cross River State from
November 9 to 16.