Getting more films submitted than expected, turned out to be a success for the just-ended Arusha African Film Festival (AAFF), according to the organisers.
Immediately after closing last year’s first episode in December the organisers, Hakika Entertainment, started preparing for this year’s second edition, which closed last Sunday.
The event’s organisers started requesting for participants to send their films in January. However, by August they had received more films than they had anticipated. This required some changes to be made in their plans.
“More people wanted to submit their films but we had already started the next process with the 70 we had selected. So couldn’t take any more films for this year’s edition,” Festival Manager Mary Birdi, who is also Hakika Entertainment’s Director, told the ‘Daily News’.
Hakika had started making other preparations, such as finding venues and sponsors and they thought it best to concentrate on the 70 entrants.
“We had intended to hold the second episode of the AAFF only for three days but when people started submitting films on line and through the mail, at a faster rate than they had predicted within the scheduled time, we closed the door much earlier,” Birdi said.
“All the other submissions received had to be moved over to next year’s selection list. We still had 70 good films, which were submitted before their deadline date, so it was only then that we realised the challenge in front of us … it was impossible to screen the 70 films within three days,” she added.
The festival was, therefore, opened last Friday but actually the brief festival screening started on Monday with films being shown at the three venues.
Birdi said they have learnt much from this year’s episode and they think it will be bigger next year provided they get funds.
By IMAN MANI, Tanzania Daily News
