The Kwetu International Animation Film Festival (KIAFF) has announced the winners of this year’s KIAFF Awards. KIAFF is an East African based festival that focuses only on animation productions. This year, the festival had its inaugural edition on April 2nd to 3rd 2021, with 50 animation works from around the world.
The 2021 edition of the festival was screened online via KIAFF partner, NuellaTV, enabling viewers from around the world to enjoy animations that included features, short films, TV commercials and with a focus on Made in Africa, films made by African animators in Africa.
Various Awards were presented by the jury, made up of;
- Prof. Martin Mhando (Tanzania)
- Fred Lyons (Australia)
- Fibby Kioria (Kenya)
The festival has stated that in future editions, it will become a place of intercultural exchange and a platform for the critical animated cinematic exploration of social and development issues. It will discover and develop new animation talents to East Africa on the global stage and accompany them on their path into the spotlight and support their careers, visions, projects, dreams and works.
The following were the winners in different categories
1. Special Jury Mention
Winner: This Side, Other Side, Iran – Dir: Lida Fazli
2. Audience Award
Winner: 208, Kenya, Dir: Stanslaus Manthi
3. Best Commercial Ad
Winner: Water, Denmark, Dir: Jessica Laurent
4. Best Film in Sound
Winner: Memories for Sale, Costa Rica, Designer: Florian Calmer
5. Best Character
Winner: Benjamin, Iran – Dir: Mohsen Enayati
6. Best Story/Script
Winner: Memories for Sale, Costa Rica, Dir: Manuel Lopez
7. Best East African Film
Winner: From Here to Timbuktu, Kenya – Dir: Brian Msafiri
8. Best Film Made in Africa
Winner: The Legend of Lwanda Makere, Kenya – Dir: Kwame Nyong’o
9. Best Short Film
Winner: Beyond the Trees, France – Dir: Pierre Burgoni
10. Best Feature Film
Winner: Benjamin, Iran – Dir: Mohsen Enayati
KIAFF is supported by Goethe Institut Dar es Salaam, CDEA and NuellaTV.