Kenya will host the first ever African Wildscreen Festival from June 30 to July 1 2023 at Alliance Française.
The two day festival is a partnership between WildlifeDirect, Kenya Wildlife Service, BBC Studios Natural History Unit and Wildscreen.
The festival will spotlight the Africa’s thriving, and unique stories, and celebrate the emergence of Kenya as an internationally significant global film hub. It will feature leading storytellers and filmmakers, providing networking, commissioning and career opportunities.
The festival will be hosted by Jahawi Bertolli, an award-winning Kenyan filmmaker, National Geographic Explorer and iLCP Associate Fellow. In a headline interview, Kartiki Gonsalves, the first ever Indian Film Director to win an Academy Award for her debut short documentary The Elephant Whisperers, will speak with Dr. Paula Kahumbu, CEO of WildlifeDirect and Presenter of the National Geographic series The Secrets of the Elephants.
The Nairobi event will host a session, Wild Pitch, supported by National Geographic. Six emerging or established filmmakers born or living in Africa will be selected to pitch their film idea to a panel of international commissioners. They will have the chance to win a cash prize to help fund their creation. The expert panel will include Janet Han Vissering, Sr. Vice President, Program Development and Production at National Geographic and Head of BBC Studios Natural History Unit, Jonny Keeling. In addition, the festival will also announce a bursary programme, supporting two emerging Kenyan-based filmmakers and two rest of Africa filmmakers to attend the event.
The Festival programme is being curated with the support of a Festival Advisory Board, which includes: Paula Kahumbu, CEO WildlifeDirect; Michael Masheti, Production and Liaison Officer Kenya Film Commission; Nashipae Orumoy, Director Strategic Communications, African Wildlife Foundation; Caroline Cox, Production Executive, BBC Studios Natural History Unit; Janet Han Vissering, SVP Development and Production at Nat Geo Content; Sreya Biswas, Head of Natural History, BBC Commissioning; Chloe Sarosh, Executive Producer, Wildstar Films; Jeff Wilson, Director, Silverback Films; and Asif Choudhury, Deputy Permanent Representative UNEP and UNHabitat and the British High Commission, Nairobi.
Tickets are available here: events.wildscreen.org/wildscreen-festival-nairobi