dela
April 15, 2020
The Adiaha Women’s Documentary Award at Encounters 2020
The Ladima Foundation will be awarding its Adiaha Prize for Best Documentary by an African woman filmmaker at the 22nd Encounters Documentary Film Festival taking place in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa from the 4th – 14th of June 2020.
The Adiaha Award has, in the past, been awarded twice at the Zanzibar International Film Festival in 2017 and 2018. The 2018 winner, Phillipa Ndisi-Herrmann’s New Moon went on to win Best Documentary at the Durban International Film Festival.
The Adiaha Award includes a $2000 cash component to be used on the director’s next film, as well as an invitation to attend the International Women’s Film Festival Dortmund/ Cologne (Internationales Frauenfilmfestival Dortmund | Köln) in February 2021.
The Award is just one of the initiatives of the Ladima Foundation in its work to promote and support African women filmmakers.
Women documentary filmmakers from across Africa are encouraged to submit their films to Encounters, which is one of Africa’s longest-running and most respected documentary film festivals. The Adiaha Award will be added to the existing award categories at the festival and will be announced on the closing night of the event.
Encounters have always had a strong Pan-African mandate, and ahead of the 2020 festival is further reaching out across the continent to encourage filmmakers, especially women, to submit their films.
Encounters Festival Director Mandisa Zitha has this to say of hosting the Adiaha Award in 2020: “Its very special for Encounters to host the Adiaha Award at the 22nd edition. To be able to welcome African filmmakers to the Festival over the years has been a privilege, and the Award is a wonderful partnership to strengthen collaboration amongst African documentary filmmakers. “
Film submissions are NOW open and can be done via the following links
SA/African Entries: https://www.encounters.co.za/submit-african-documentary/
African film submissions are exempt from the submission fee.
International submissions: https://www.encounters.co.za/submit-international-documentary/
A nominal submission fee of USD15 is charged for International entries
About the Ladima Foundation
The Ladima Foundation is a Pan-African non-profit organisation founded with the aim of contributing to correcting the major imbalances within the industry. Ladima aims to support women in a variety of roles within filmmaking, video production and related content development, through a range of projects and interventions.
Through partnerships and collaborations in various countries, as well as through Pan-African networks and projects, the Ladima Foundation is committed to developing training, networking, and related opportunities for women professionals who demonstrate their seriousness and commitment to their craft.
https://www.ladima.africa/
About Encounters
Founded in 1999, Encounters is the leading Creative Documentary Festival in South Africa and on the African continent. Annually, Encounters offers ten days of diverse and exceptional programming of relevant, creative documentaries from around the globe. The Festival strives to take an innovative approach to develop audiences and building capacity in the local and regional documentary film industry. Since its inception, Encounters has become an important site of both audience engagement through the main film programme and of learning and transformation through its comprehensive industry and training offering. This includes workshops, Master Classes, filmmaking labs and access programmes amongst other initiatives.
The Festival has significant economic, cultural and social impact achieving these through initiatives such as its Inreach programme which creates access for historically disadvantaged communities and through the economic activity and job creation opportunities generated by the Festival.
Encounters believe in the power of documentary film to transform, create empathy and to contribute to mutual understanding and dialogue between cultures. Through its core activities, the Festival has continued to be a vital platform where both established and emerging filmmakers and audiences intersect with documentary cinema from Africa and abroad. Encounters is a non-profit organisation governed by board members.
