Exciting times as ZIFF hosts Discop Zanzibar

The way film is marketed across the world has in the past decade changed to incorporate some of the modern elements in the industry.

This year for the first time the East African region through the 21st edition of Zanzibar international Film festival get a taste of this medium.

Discop Zanzibar takes place in partnership with the Zanzibar International Film Festival that will run from July 7.

The festival takes a giant step in cinematic world under the theme ‘Speak up and Be Heard’ where all the industry of Cinema, TV and digital communication will gather transforming ZIFF in a great platform to boost East Africa’s film industry.

This development according to organisers comes with a unique opportunity to African cinema in general to be seen and heard.

Discop a TV and Film market with events in Johannesburg, Abidjan and Dubai will focus on film as well as announcing two new categories of awards from ZIFF namely Best TV Series and Best Web Series, reflecting the ever-increasing merging of content categories.

Speaking to The Beat, ZIFF’s special projects co-ordinator Lara Preston says Discop Zanzibar will include a market / exhibition space for key players in the East African film industry, as well as various options for independent producers and smaller companies.

She says, the exhibition space will be focused on developing the regional industry, producer and delegate badge options will be priced to make them as accessible as possible.

“All delegates will from the meeting service that is at the heart of the Discop markets strategy. Once registered, delegates will be matched with relevant industry players depending on their specific business needs and goals,” she says.

Discop Zanzibar will also host a NextGen program of panel discussions and Master Class sessions. In partnership with ZIFF, this programme will be expanded and ZIFF will continue its developmental focus with more intense and in-depth workshops.

As in the past, ZIFF will play host to the Maisha Film Lab, as well as a host of other Three- day workshops run by experts from the world over.

According to Lara Preston, a number of key NextGen program elements have also been confirmed, including the official inclusion of Ethiopia as Guest Country for Discop Zanzibar 2018.

A special program of discussions and panels will feature top Ethiopian film industry representatives.

Nextgen program will also include panels on improving the performance and efficiencies of film commissions, the importance of Swahili content, and animation and VR amongst other topics.

The recently launched Discore program with a focus on the importance of music and synch deals within the content space.

A focus on East African music and composers will see the inclusion of the East African music industry.

The festival which started off as a regular film festival has since evolved into one of most sought after events on the continent bringing in industry specialists from Hollywood and Bollywood.

It has since become a meeting place for some of the industry’s leading professionals and industry’s stakeholders meet to strike deals that have changed the industry.

In the last decade alone film makers such as Hollywood’s Danny Glover, Mira Nair, Terry Phetto and even Bollywood Kunaal Kapoor have graced the festival as the chief guest.

This year’s festival saw a record number of entries across all categories with over 4,000 film submitted across the various entry platforms.

There was a marked increase in the amount of documentaries submitted, with over 800 being entered for consideration.

There were nearly 400 features being submitted, in the process making the selection process for 2018 extremely difficult.

Commenting on the selection process and the final line-up Festival Director Fabrizio Colombo says, the sheer number of film submissions for ZIFF 2018 was a surprise.

“It is rewarding to see how much our Festival is growing and is attracting so many filmmakers around the world, but especially from our continent,” he says.

He says, entries were received from different parts of the world with submissions coming from over 140 countries, with the USA and India leading the number of submissions.

East African filmmakers have also shown amazing interest in ZIFF with Ugandan filmmakers submitting 55 films, 54 from Kenya, and Tanzania 31.

“ZIFF’s 20th edition marked a turning point in the history of our festival. We are geared and focused on both the business and the passion of what we all love which is Cinema. With the big step this year of ZIFF’s partnership of Discop Zanzibar, we are ready and excited to welcome all the players in the business of film, television and content production. TV and digital communication will gather transforming ZIFF in a great platform to boost East Africa industry,” says Colombo.

Last week ZIFF opened its doors to registration of a range of exciting and educational workshops as part of its on-going commitment to developing and uplifting the East African film industry.

This year Edima Otuokon is the ZIFF workshops coordinator and for the first time the festival will present a web series workshop.

“In this three-day course, Vincenzo Cavallo and Tshoper Kabambi will provide participants with the tools to get started, test the renewability and audience appeal, as well as help to structure content for maximum audience engagement for webisodes,” she says .

According to her workshops and training are an integral part of ZIFF 2018 in partnership with the US Embassy to present ‘She Directs’, a directing workshop for women by women.

The workshop will be facilitated by Aylin Basaran, Cece Mlay and Debra Zimmerman. The She Directs Workshop is essential to support the growth and development of women in film in East Africa.

“ZIFF is also keen on developing African actors and providing them with mentors, so we have partnered with the award winning Jacky Ido and Nigerian acting sensation Bikiya Graham Douglas to develop an Acting Workshop that will highlight the variety of skills required to achieve believable and emotive performances,” she adds.