By Sam Banda and Jimmy Chazama
About 18 awards were given out during the third edition of Malawi Film Festival.
The festival kicked off at Golden Peacock in Lilongwe on Friday and ended on Saturday.
The awards included Lifetime Achievers Award, which posthumously went to renowned actor Hope Chisanu, who passed on this year.
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In the international category, the Best International Feature Film went to Mama Wangi whereas the Best Cinematographer went to 1992, with Dinner for Three collecting the Best International Director.
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The Malawian category saw movies such as Justice, a film which stars actors such as award-winning filmmaker Joyce Mhango Chavula, entrepreneur Dorothy Kingston and Diana Liabuba, scooping three awards in the categories of Best Director, Achievement in Sound and Achievement in Editing.
The other film that did well at the awards is Olive Tree, which collected awards in Achievement in Makeup and Best Costume whereas The Devil in Me also bagged two awards in People’s Awards (Best Story) and Best Supporting Actress.
The other awards are True or False (Achievement in Cinematography), Screen Shot (Best Short Film), Bukhata (Best Feature), Dear Ex (People’s Awards–Best TV Series) and Khasu (Best Screenplay), Innocent Manyera (Best Actor), Mada Kafamtenga (Best Actress) and Dickson Mandota (Best Supporting Actor).
The festival, which gives movie lovers an opportunity to sample both short and feature films, screened 38 films.
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Festival coordinator Phil Kuipa said the festival had improved greatly since it started and that they had been impressed by the quality of films produced by filmmakers.
“We have seen passion from filmmakers and many have improved their productions. The audience was not that good but we had the numbers over the two days,” Kuipa said.
He said apart from screenings and awards, the festival had workshops which acted as a bridge for creatives to gain knowledge.
“The workshops had important topics including how to invest and be financially sustainable. Filmmakers also had time to learn from other international films which were screened such as Cry Freedom by Denzel Washington, which tells the story of Steve Biko,” Kuipa said.
He hailed the corporate world for coming out with support.
“We are also thankful to the government for taking an interest in the creative sector and this is evident with the assenting to the National Arts and Heritage Council (Nahec) Bill by President Lazarus Chakwera recently,” Kuipa said.
The Malawi Film Festival ran under the theme ‘Embracing Malawian Culture through Films’.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, in collaboration with the Malawi National Commission for Unesco, is from tomorrow through to December 4 2024 hosting a national conference for the creative industries and heritage industries at Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe.
The conference is part of the project ‘Strengthening of the Institutional Capacities in Implementing the Malawi National Cultural Policy in line with the Unesco 2005 Convention on the Promotion and Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions’.
