By Hussein Kiganda
Ugandans are gearing up for the Joburg Film Festival(JFF) in South Africa. The festival’s fifth edition will run from January 31 to February 5, 2023, and will feature 6 Ugandans that will represent the Ugandan film industry.
The JFF organizers invited Christine Neolla(African Film Festival), Moses Serugo(African Movie Night), Pheobe Katushabe(Fey Films), Sadat Kisiriko(Jambula Creations Limited), Samuel Saviour Kizito(Kyooto Media Group), and Leonard Amanya(Uganda Communications Commission) as representatives of the Pearl of Africa.
The Joburg Film Festival is a uniquely curated film program that showcases African and International films, providing young and emerging filmmakers with various opportunities for development, training, skills transfer, and networking.
Standing for innovation, excellence, and purposeful creativity, the festival seeks to grow and contribute to cultural tourism not only for the city of Joburg and the Gauteng province but for South Africa and Africa as a whole.
Samuel Saviour Kizito, the founder of the Uganda Academy Selection Committee(UASC) and the boss at Kyooto Media Group has been invited as a Very Important Person(VIP) and will lead discussions on the topic, “Uniting Africa Through Film: Crossing Borders”.
Kizito said he feels honoured to be selected to speak to thousands of filmmakers at the festival.
“It’s an honour to be chosen to share words of wisdom with fellow filmmakers at such a big festival. I hope to learn much from it and I also hope many other filmmakers will learn from me,” Kizito said.
At the festival, tens of films from over 35 countries across the globe will be screened. There will also be 20 African premieres and 27 South African premieres. Some of the countries whose films will be screened are; South Africa, Tunisia, South Korea, Brazil, the USA, Japan, Morocco, and several more.
A content market will also be held from February 1 to 4, 2023
