Crowning Finish for 2008 Film Festival
With "Remember Eliphas Part II" scooping no less than 5 of the 12 Namibia Film Awards on Wednesday 16 April at a star-spangled event held at the National Theatre of Namibia, the 2008 Wild Cinema Windhoek International Film Festival came to a fitting and glorious end. Produced by Libet Maloney and directed by Ernst Steynberg, the Aids awareness flik "Remember Eliphas" - commissioned by the Namibian Defense Force - walked away with Best Picture while the Best Editing and Best Director Award went to Nghidipo Nangolo for his historic Windhoek 50’s township jazz documentary "Skymasters". The tried and tested film making trio, Botelle, Scott and Bosman of Mamakobo Video and Research, were the well-deserved receivers of the 2008 Wild Cinema Audience Choice Award sponsored for the 2nd year running by Berlin based Film and Production Company, Mafilm GmBh. Filmmaker and owner of Mafilm, Alexander Martens, was in situ at the award ceremony to hand over the public’s choice for 2008.
The 2008 Wild Cinema film festival, widely recognized as Namibia’s only platform for the country’s young and upcoming filmmakers, chalked up another 2 firsts this year: For the first time a genre specific award was awarded to the director of the Best Namibian Music Video, scooped up by Tim Hübschle for Afroshine’s "Ti Mama", while festival audiences for the first time had the opportunity to also vote for their favorite international production, credited to German film “Emma’s Bliss”.
With the second Namibia Film Awards firmly under the belt, Wild Cinema has set yet another precedent with this year’s red carpet event, hosted by well-known local business man, Lazarus Jacobs, and beauty pageant, Barbara Kahatjipara, who had the packed house in stitches with their ‘local-is-lekker’ rapport. The professional running of the "(N)Oscars 2008" was complimented by local performance luminaries of the likes of Lady May, the talented duo G3, and none other than Namibia’s very own 2007 Channel-O Winner, Gazza.
With 3800 counted festival visitors for the 2008 Windhoek International Film Festival, Wild Cinema organizers are satisfied with the results. "More people are aware of the festival than ever before, thanks to our extensive publicity campaign", said festival director Irmgard Schreiber, and participation in the audience choice award showed an increase of almost 300%. Similarly, a total of 57 local productions were submitted for this year’s festival, almost tripling last year’s festival film competition, while prize moneys for the Namibia Film Awards, thanks to the loyal support by both the Namibia Film Commission and the Namibian Private Sector, increased to almost N$ 40 000. Namibia’s film makers thus not only received public and international recognition for their creative work but also earned hard cash for their tireless endeavors.
Or as Robin Tyson, well-known local media personality and one of juror’s for this year’s competition, put it: “If you want to get something done, do it yourself,’ (yet) we need to empower fellow professionals and encourage them to develop specific skills, rather than taking on all of those responsibilities ourselves.”
Related Articles:
Speech on the occasion of the Namibia Film Awards 2008 By Juror Robin Tyson
Namibia Film Awards 2008: The Winners
Namibia Film Awards 2008 Photo Slideshow |
