Frank Gharbin
Twenty-two new films have been selected to compete in the live virtual edition of Black Star International Film Festival (BSIFF) dubbed ‘Connect’.
This year’s edition of the festival would run as a live virtual event dubbed ‘Connect’ from September 24 to September 27, 2020 on the official BSIFF websites and social media platforms due to the global pandemic.
The manager of the BSIFF for this year, Philippa Ama Bentuma Arthur, disclosed that over 200 hundreds films “were submitted from different countries; however, only 22 of those were selected by the jury for premiere in Ghana.”
As is the case annually, many filmmakers around the world submit their films to the festival. A ‘capable’ panel of jury members would go through the arduous task of choosing the final films that make it into competition during the festival.
This year, as part of efforts to celebrate Ghanaian filmmakers, the festival has announced a special award category for Ghanaian films called the ‘Odehye? category’.
According to the organisers of BSIFF, many of the submitted films were from Ghana, and many of those films have made it into competition.
The 22 selected films would compete under eight categories comprising documentary, short film, feature film, women in film, student film, Africa rising, the ‘Odehye?’ category and animation. Additionally, three more films will screen under the non-competitive category.
Among Ghanaian films which dominated the festival are ‘Heroes of Africa’ by Frank Gharbin, ‘Sue Saeed’ by Zadok Donkor, ‘Fort Prizenstein’ by Kekeli Quashiegah, ‘The Star Boy’ by James Deacon, ‘70 Years of Blackness’ by Salem Alhachity and Abdallah Ahin and a host other films.
‘Connect’ would have exciting and educative range of activities, including master classes, panel sessions, daily film screenings, an opening ceremony, awards night and a music concert.