Kwetu Film Institute, the brains behind the Rwanda Film Festival, has revealed the dates of the 15th edition of the Rwanda Film Festival, which has established itself as one of the country’s most important cultural events, but one of Africa’s major film festivals. 

This year’s edition will run under the theme: "New Africa, Evolving Perspectives’’, which points at the big strides Africa as a continent is making in the areas of trade, tourism, education and in the film industry. 

Speaking at a news conference at the institute’s premises, Eric Kabera, the president of the Rwanda Cinema Centre, said that the event starts October 19 to 26, in different locations of Kigali. 

"Dates for the 15th edition of the Rwanda Film Festival will stretch from the 19th to the 26th of this month and the event is expected to inspire men and women of the African origin to tell their beautiful African stories,” he said. 

"We, as Africans, are responsible for telling our own stories. The locations chosen to host this year’s edition include the Kigali Public Library, the Kigali Cultural Village, as well as Century Cinema. The festival will promote and encourage awareness, appreciation and understanding art of cinema in Rwanda as well as presenting the most outstanding films produced from all over the world,” he said. 

Categories for the films in competition that will be screened during the festival include long feature films, short fiction films, documentaries (long and short), animations and web-series. 

Celebrated actor and movie director Julius Amedume's ‘Rattlesnake’ and a short film ‘Zombies’ by Baloji will be screened as highlights of the day when the festival officially starts. It is expected to attract many movie lovers across different age groups and races. 

One of the films to watch out is the long feature film, "Karani Ngufu”, that was acted and produced by Rwandans. 

Renown comedian and actor Diogene Ntarindwa, who is set to be the ambassador for the festival, noted that the main reason the movie industry in Rwanda is not developed is the fact that there is a lot of ‘copy and paste’ of movies from elsewhere.

"There is lack of creativity as many movies here have a concept that is either derived from Hollywood or Nollywood, and this makes the industry appear as if it is just surviving on the presence of these and this really keeps us backward as people are watching what they have already seen from movies elsewhere,” he said. 

editor@newtimesrwanda.com