Ilinca Nastasia,

Editor (Film)

 

The 7th edition of the Kenyan International Film Festival is set to end this week, with the closing ceremony that took place on November 2nd at the National Museum of Kenya. Since its inception, when it was purely meant as a showcase of local cinema, it has grown exponentially, this last edition having received somewhere around 300 entries from around the world, according to the organizers.

The theme chosen for this year’s event – World Classics - clearly reflects this increase in popularity and scope, and the film selection, thus, aims to present multiple cultural perspectives alongside the local ones with the clear objective of creating an impetus for the development of Eastern African cinema. As a result of this, the festival includes workshops, discussions and a series of special events aimed at students meant to increase both practical knowledge of and interest in film-making.

These initiatives are cropping up all over the continent. While by no means a homogeneous affair (we are, after all, talking about a huge landmass with massive cultural variations between its regions), the African film industry is clearly on the rise. Nigeria’s Nollywood now boasts the second biggest output of films per year, right after Bollywood. To put that into perspective, that places it above the US’s blockbuster churning machine.

African cinema’s accomplishments are definitely in the spotlight, slowly beginning to gain international recognition.