The fifth annual Jozi Film Festival: We love Jozi, we love film

Above: Dora’s Peace is one of the films that will be showcased at the upcoming Jozi Film Festival.

 

The fifth annual Jozi Film Festival (JFF) takes place on 15 – 18 September 2016. Excitement rising as this year’s festival is expected to be the “best and biggest to date”, says JFF co-founder and director Lisa Henry.

“CN&CO is thrilled to be a partner for this year’s festival,” says CN&CO’s Carel Nolte. “There is energy in Joburg that we love. It exists in the people and the history of the city and there remain stories that are still to be told through film.”

CN&CO’s love for art does not end here. Everyone in our team loves the arts, whether it be theatre, music or visual arts. CN&CO is a member of Business Arts South Africa (BASA) and Carel Nolte is a member of board. We’ve also provided sponsorship and support for several arts initiatives in the past 12 months.

Jozi Film Festival is a non-profit organisation which was founded in 2012 by Lisa Henry, Ernest Nkosi and Warwick Allan. Their aim is to give local filmmakers the opportunity to showcase their talent and the film-lovers, good film, while also highlighting the city of Johannesburg, through their motto: We love Jozi, we love film.

“We saw the need to create a platform for local talent to showcase their work and for audience to enjoy the chance to see movies that would not necessarily get a cinema release and would often only be seen by international audiences at film festivals abroad”, says Lisa.

This year’s festival will take place over four days at The Bioscope in Maboneng  and Ster Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau in Rosebank. It will feature both local and international films in several genres, including features, documentaries, short films and student films.

In 2015 the festival had a lot of success. One of the award-winning films, Thina Sobabili, was directed by JFF board member and founder of The Monarchy Group, Ernest Nkosi. This film received an Audience Choice Award. Chi Mhende, a young and talented actress whom we have seen in a popular South African soapie Generations, was the lead actress in another award-winning film, Love The One You Love, produced by Jenna Cato Bass.

Thandi Tutu, daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, sang high praises to JFF for screening Children of the Light, a documentary about her father’s life and legacy, which she narrates.

“It is amazing how many things one had forgotten about and how much my dad did,” she said, after the 2015 Jozi Film Festival.

This year’s film categories will focus on issues that we face as country – not necessarily politics.

“The festival will be exploring a broad range of topics that affect our communities and stir our hearts and minds – that leave us feeling hopeful or hopeless,” says Lisa. “In addition, the festival will also offer provocative Q&A sessions with the filmmakers in attendance, as well as workshops and networking events.”

Jozi Film Festival, in partnership with EasyEquities, is also giving filmmakers an additional avenue for exploring their talents this year.

The Jozi: Love/Hate mobile phone film competition is offering contestants a chance to win a cash prize of R5000 – R25000 cash and R2 500 in an EasyEquity account – plus tickets to JFF’s Awards Night on 18 September. Click here for more information.

As a tradition of the JFF each year, there will be an award ceremony at the end of the festival, to honour the best films in each genre.

“At this year’s awards, JFF will be announcing a pan-African filmmaking competition with a US-based global television channel for 2017,” says Lisa.

This festival is going from strength to strength. Find out more on the Jozi Film Festival website, Facebook page and Twitter feed.