Ghanaian movie “Drexciya” got special mention of the jury at Tarifa African Film Festival in Spain

19th June, Tarifa, Spain - Ghanaian documentary “Drexciya” directed by A.Adomu Owusu got special mention of the jury at 8th African Film Festival of Tarifa (FCAT) in Spain. “The jury decided to give special mention to this fantastic documentary for the radical nature of the project, its effective use of limited economic resources and its poetic insight,” says Mane Cisneros, director of the FCAT.

The documentary is a portrait of an abandoned public swimming pool in Accra, Ghana. The Riviera Beach Club was once known as Ghana's first pleasure beach. The Olympic-sized pool in the once-extravagant Ambassador Hotel is now in a dilapidated state. The film's title is inspired by Drexciya, the somewhat mysterious Black electronic-music duo from Detroit.

This year FCAT altogether awarded eight new African movies with awards endowed with 46 500 euros. The festival jury selected winners from more than 140 movies from 23 African countries.

1. The best feature-length movie (15 000 €) - “MICROPHONE” (Ahmad Abdalla, Egypt)

2. The best direction (10 000 €) - “A JAMA” (Daoud Aoulad-Syad, Morocco/France)

3. The best actress (1 500 €) - DENISE NEWMAN for “SHIRLEY ADAMS” (Oliver Hermanus, South Africa).

4. The best actor (1 500 €) - YOUSSOUF DJAORO for “UN HOMME QUI CRIE” (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad/France/Belgium).

5. The best documentary feature film (10 000 €) - “KOUNDI ET LE JEUDI NATIONAL” (Ariani Astrid Atodji, Cameroon)

6. The best short movie (2 000 €) - “MWANSA THE GREAT” (Rungano Nyoni, Zambia/UK)

7. The RTVA award for Audiovisual Creation for the best short film award (1 500 €) - “MWANSA THE GREAT” (Rungano Nyoni, Zambia/UK).

8. The audience award for the best feature length movie (5 000 €) - “UN HOMME QUI CRIE” (Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Chad/France/Belgium).

9. The SIGNIS award for the best fiction feature film - “A JAMA” (Daoud Aoulad-Syad, Morocco/France).

FCAT, one of the biggest European festival of African cinema, welcomes this year over 200 African filmmakers including legendary African director Moustapha Alassane and focuses among others on African Diaspore in Latin America, the role of cinema in recent revolutions in Tunis and Egypt or restrospective of Congolese cinematography.

Festival was accompanied among others by 3rd Africa Produce Forum, where 10 African filmmakers competed with their projects to get funding from European producers including representatives of Al-Jazeera Docuemntary Channel. The winning projects will be announced soon.

In this year 4th Photoafrica, whose topic was “Urban Space”, competed twenty five photographers from eleven African countries. The winners are:

● 1st place award (€1,500) - Jessica MacLeod (South Africa) with the photograph titled “You see a shack, I see my house”

● 2nd place award (€1,000) - James Muriuki (Kenya) with the photograph titled “44”

● 3rd place award (€500) - Mimi Cherono (Kenya) with the photograph titled “Khusi and the Giraffes”

The exhibiton of altogether 27 large format photographs will be inaugurated and installed outdoors in Tarifa before and through the festival and after its closure will be travelling the whole year through Spanish and African cities.

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About FCAT
African film festival of Tarifa (FCAT – Festival de Cine Africano de Tarifa) is an independent and competitive film festival and one of the biggest African film festivals in Europe. The FCAT celebrates its eighth edition from 11th to 19th June in Andalusian town Tarifa - the closest town of continental Europe to the African continent - the two continents are in fact only 14 km apart from one another in this geographical area.

This year FCAT will screen up over hundred African films and it will bring together some of the most distinguished African filmmakers. Its aim is to spread knowledge about African film production by exhibiting a representative wide variety of audiovisual African works every year: from the classics to more innovative and recent films, from documentaries to feature length fiction films, from South Africa to Morocco and from Senegal to Ethiopia. More on www.fcat.es