By Tiffany Pritchard
29 May, 2014
As the Ethiopian film industry grows, Ethiopian Film Initiative (EFI) founder (and Swedish filmmaker) Ragnhild Ek says there is also a rise in the number of female filmmakers in the African country.
She refers in part to the carefully selected group of young Ethiopian filmmakers that are each year brought to the Cannes Film Festival by the International Emerging Film Talent Association, the EFI and now the Better World Film Festival, to help promote global relationships and an increased knowledge of the international film market.
In its previous two years running, the selected members were predominantly men, as are the popular Ethiopian directors working today including Haile Gerima, Theodros Teshome and and Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, whose film garnered an Executive Producer credit from Angelina Jolie. This year, the selectees were comprised of four women and one man in its group.
Ek said, “There were between 30-40 applicants, the majority being women – and their applications were all very good. The word has spread, and we are pleased with this turn of events.”
Adanech Admassu is the most experienced of the group, boasting an impressive CV of commercials and documentaries – with one film, Stolen Childhood, already earning her the One World Media Prize in London. The director came to Cannes (while seven months pregnant) with a drive and focus to give Ethiopian films a wider audience.
Read more at Screen Daily.
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