Top Kenyan Films To Be Feted At Regional Film Festival

Kenyan films are finally getting the international break that seemed a pipe dream for so many years. With the great success of Nairobi Half Life, more films are bound to go down the same route if producers uphold the standards of this great masterpiece.

And the results are already showing because the much celebrated film ‘The return of Lazarus’, a feature film shot in Greece, is among the submitted films in the upcoming Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) to be held in June this year.

The Kenyan/Greek film directed by Alexandros Konstantaras and featuring Alexandros Koch and Lizz Njagah is among 14 Kenyan films hoping to receive an award at the East Africa’s largest film, music and arts festival.
East Africa’s Pay TV Zuku is sponsoring ZIFF this year and has signed a 10 year agreement (2012-2022) to sponsor the annual event at a cost of $USD 1,000,000. Zuku CEO Richard Bell expressed commitment and excitement at the presence of East Africa in the celebrated festival.

He said, ‘The film industry in East Africa and across Africa is at an exciting time and we are privileged to support ZIFF as it empowers African films, directors and actors.” He further stated that Zuku, especially through the Zuku Africa, channel 100, will continue to celebrate African productions and air local programmes.

The festival has received 23 films from Tanzania and several from Uganda out of the total 257 films submitted early this year.Additional submissions have been received from the rest of the continent- Nigeria, Cameroon, Trinidad, Angola as well as the from outside Africa including the US, UK and Asian countries.

The exciting Kenyan film Nairobi Half Life directed by “Tosh’ Gitonga, Kenya will be among films the festival will showcase.