18 July 2010, 12:00 p.m.

Africa’s best films recognized as Zanzibar Film Festival closes 

East Africa’s largest film festival, the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) came to an end today after last night’s glitzy award ceremony recognizing the wealth of film making talent on the continent.

ZIFF is East Africa’s largest film, music and arts festival and films were submitted based on the theme “'Hopes in Harmony.” 

Themba

The Golden Dhow award for the best feature film went to Themba by Jens Lehmann from South Africa with second place going to Imani by Caroline Kamya from Uganda. Themba also won the Unicef Award.

Lehmann, a former goalkeeper for Germany, plays the role of Big John Jacobs, a football trainer and talent scout, who discovers Themba, a young and ambitious football youth in South Africa. Themba struggles with societal problems facing South Africa including violence, poverty and HIV/Aids but eventually makes it into the South African national squad. The movie is based on a novel by Lutz van Dijk. 

Finding love in the slums of Nairobi

Ndoto Za Elibidi by Kamau Wa Ndung’u and Nick Reding from Kenya received the Golden Dhow for the best East African Talent, The same film also received the Verona African Film Festival Award and a second commendation in the Signis Awards and a second mention in the Sembene Ousmane Award.

Ndoto Za Elibidi is a Swahili story shot in the slums of Nairobi and pivots around the theme of acceptance and love as it tells the story of parents, four daughters and their lovers and explores how they come to terms with HIV and ghetto life. 

Documentaries

Golden Dhows for best short film and best documentary was awarded to The Gift by Jill Soong from Singapore and Motherland by the UK’s Owen Alik Shahadah

Wanjiru Kairu from Kenya received a special jury prize for Pumzi.

The Signis Award went to Soul Boy by Hawa Essuman (Kenya and Germany), with a first commendation going to A Step into Darkness by Atil Inac from Turkey. A special East African Talent award went to My City on Fire by Dennis Onen from Uganda. This feature film deals with the September 2009 riots in Kampala, Uganda and tells the story of a man brave enough to document what was happening. 

Special awards

My Policy by Phad Mutumba from Uganda/Canada won the Chairman’s Award while the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Professor Jengo, Best Tanzanian Film went to Nani by Sajni Srivastava and Yvonne Cherry won the award for best actress.