Film Africa 2022 Opens Tonight with the UK Premiere of the Award Winning Our Father, The Devil

Film Africa, London’s biggest celebration of African and African diaspora cinema presented by the Royal African Society (www.RoyalAfricanSociety.org), returns for its 10^th edition with the UK Premiere of the multi-award winning Our Father, The Devil, Friday 28 October at Picturehouse Central, off Leicester Square.

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Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at this summer’s Tribeca Film Festival, this unnervingly compelling film follows caretaker Marie as her peaceful life in France is upended by the arrival of a charismatic priest who reminds her of her traumatic past.

“Ellie Foumbi’s feature directorial debut is an intense and fearless dissection of trauma, power, revenge, guilt, and the devils hiding within all of us. Featuring Oscar-worthy performances by Sadjo and Savané, Our Father, The Devil is a stunning showcase for the impeccable talents of everyone involved. Heart-pounding and morally gray throughout, Foumbi and her collaborators have created a new classic that dares to go to bold cinematic heights.”--Karen McMullen, Tribeca Film Festival

Film Africa runs from Friday 28 October to Sunday 6 November 2022. The first edition since the end of covid restrictions, the festival will once again return to cinemas across London, showcasing 47 titles from 16 African countries, including 21 UK, European and World premieres, in 7 venues. Building off the success of last year’s partnership with BFI Player, Film Africa will also feature a selection of 7 narrative and documentary films on BFI Player, which will be available for people to watch during the festival, individually or in interactive watch parties. BFI Player is available with a free 14-day trial.

Click here to watch the Film Africa 2022 trailer - https://bit.ly/3SKBaTg.

With a vision of showcasing the depth and variety of African stories, this year’s curators (Aseye Tamakloe, Accra, Ghana, Nyambura M. Waruingi, Nairobi, Kenya, and Wilfred Okiche, Cleveland, USA via Lagos, Nigeria) have selected films which demonstrate that although a lot of history and experiences are shared by Africans, there isn’t any one way to be or express being African. The films – feature-length and shorts, fiction and documentary – lay bare discourse around diversity, inclusiveness, power structures, seeking healing, and building communities. Themes covered include a mother’s love, belonging, sisterly bonds, migration, sexuality, gender, religion, abortion rights, repressed trauma, and freedom struggles. The selected films go to the very heart of issues, connecting historical events with contemporary concerns, and although heavy, these issues have been handled with sensitivity and captured with beauty on screen, reflecting the technical and artistic capacities of this era of African filmmakers.

Desta Haile, Deputy Director at the Royal African Society, said: “The Royal African Society is delighted to present the 10th edition of Film Africa. To open with Ellie’s film and to her joining us for the Q&A is really exciting. Our partners - curators, judges, directors, artists, food, media, food, drink, music -- have helped us pull together a stunning 10 days for the people, and I can’t wait to welcome people in person to our screenings, Q&As, workshops and events, and to our online events!”

Sarah Wechselberger, Festival Producer at Film Africa said: “Film Africa’s mission remains the same: to offer a platform to showcase and celebrate the best contemporary African cinema in London and the UK, reaffirming our emphasis on discovering new talent. I am personally excited about each and every single selected film in this year’s programme as we encounter bold storytelling, unforgettable characters and refreshing new perspectives. From daring fiction titles, thought provoking shorts to impactful documentaries, one theme that recurs is RETURN.”

In line with The Royal African Society’s mission to connect, celebrate and engage audiences with topics and ideas about Africa today, the Film Africa 2022 programme features director Q&As, plus panel discussions, online events, themed dine & view evenings, live music events, and a programme of educational workshops and masterclasses focused on increasing diversity in film.

This year, we are continuing our partnerships with BEYOND NOLLYWOOD and Deaffest, and are pleased to announce new partnerships with Cinewax, EbonyLife Media, and Mobile Film Festival Africa, who will be hosting viewings, workshops, and masterclasses as part of the festival.

BEYOND NOLLYWOOD: Curated by and presented by Nadia Denton, a selection of films which celebrate the new wave audio-visual content from Nigeria and its diaspora, alongside a Q&A with Clarence A Peters, the Director of Inside Life.

Cinewax will host an animation workshop with award winning animator, illustrator and visual artist Comfort Arthur.

Deaffest will present a programme of films by Deaf filmmakers along with a live panel discussion led by popular BSL TV presenter and in-vision translator Ahmed Mudawi, and a workshop from black deaf filmmaker David Ellington.

EbonyLife Media: Mo Abudu will host a masterclass for young Film Africa Creatives alongside Actress, Writer, and Director Nana Mensah and Costume Designer Colleen Morris-Glennon.

Mobile Film Festival Africa: Participants will learn how to make a film – from ideation through to editing – using just a smartphone.

Film Africa’s mission remains the same - to offer a platform to showcase and celebrate the best contemporary African cinema in London and the UK. As in previous years, the festival will once again present a programme of innovative shorts in competition for the annual Baobab Award for Best Short Film, judged by a panel of industry experts. The Film Africa Audience Award for Best Feature Film also returns to give festival audiences a vote. Both awards carry a cash prize of £1,000 and will be awarded during the festival.

Film Africa 2022 has been made possible thanks to the support of the BFI, Amazon Literary Partnership, Garfield Weston Foundation, Miles Morland Foundation, and EbonyLife Media.

For full programme information and online booking, please visit: FilmAfrica.org

For Film Africa 2022 publicity materials, please click here (https://bit.ly/3U6OmmC) or our Dropbox (https://bit.ly/3feSNg4). For further information and to request a screening link, please contact Emily Agodzo at press@filmafrica.org.uk or 07528 184 034.

28 October – 6 November
Physical screenings: The Africa Centre, Bertha DocHouse, BFI Southbank, Picturehouse Central, Rich Mix, The Ritzy,
South London Gallery,
Online screenings: BFI Player
FilmAfrica.org

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Royal African Society.

Notes to Editors:

1. The Royal African Society (www.RoyalAfricanSociety.org) is a membership organisation that provides opportunities for people to connect, celebrate and engage critically with a wide range of topics and ideas about Africa today. Through our events, publications and digital channels we share insight, instigate debate and facilitate mutual understanding between the UK and Africa. We amplify African voices and interests in academia, business, politics, the arts and education, reaching a network of more than one million people globally.

1. Film Africa (www.FilmAfrica.org.uk) is the Royal African Society’s biennial festival celebrating the best contemporary cinema from Africa and its diaspora. Established in 2011, the festival offers a respected platform for African film and increased film choice for London audiences.

1. Africa Writes is the Royal African Society’s literature festival. Each festival showcases established and emerging talent from the African continent and its diaspora in what is now the UK’s biggest celebration of contemporary African writing taking place over an exciting summer weekend. The festival features book launches, readings, author appearances, panel discussions, youth and children’s workshops, and other activities.

1. Running since 2020, the Amazon Literary Partnership UK scheme aims to champion the voices of underrepresented writers with an eye to encourage writing and reading about a greater variety of perspectives on the world in which we live today.

1. The BFI Audience Fund invests £5.6m of National Lottery funding each year to expand access and encourage greater enjoyment of cinema by connecting audiences with great films - in venues, at events and online. We do this by supporting:
   1. leading exhibition organisations, including film festivals, to deliver culturally rich and nationally significant programmes and events on a year-round basis
   2. projects which help exhibitors and distributors bring the best of UK and international cinema to audiences across the UK through events, distribution releases, multiplatform distribution proposals, touring film programmes and more
   3. initiatives that address under-representation and are innovating audience development www.BFI.org.uk/audience-fund

1. BFI Player https://player.bfi.org.uk/ is the greatest global cinema on demand; the go-to destination for all film lovers in the UK, that offers a different type of streaming experience. There are brand new releases to watch on rental and a subscription service expertly curated by BFI programmers and special guests, offering classic and cult films. Recent collections include selections by Tilda Swinton and Bong Joon Ho and a huge range of Japanese cinema in JAPAN2020. Also available, completely free for anyone to view, are films and collections from the BFI National Archive and regional archives, including 120 years of BRITAIN ON FILM. BFI Player is accessible through the BFI website and through a range of video platforms, including Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV.

1. Disha is a Nigeria-based platform that allows digital creators to curate, sell digital content, host portfolios and receive payments from their audience worldwide. Flutterwave acquired Disha in November 2021. Before its acquisition, Disha has acquired over 20,000 users organically over the prior 12 months.

1. The Garfield Weston Foundation is a family-founded, charitable grant-making foundation, which supports a wide range of causes across the UK, donating over £80 million annually. Established in 1958 by the Weston family it is one of the largest and most respected charitable institutions in the UK and has donated over £1 billion in total. The Trustees are descendants of the founder, and the Weston family continues to take a highly active and hands-on approach.

1. The Miles Morland Foundation is a London-based registered charity, which makes grants in areas reflecting its founder’s interests. The Foundation’s main aim is to support entities in Africa, which allow Africans to get their voices better heard with a particular focus on contemporary African writing. The Foundation awards a small number of annual writing scholarships for works of fiction and non-fiction. The scholars receive £18,000.00 paid over the course of a year.

Interviewee Bios:
The following individuals are available for interview on a range of topics

Filmmakers:
Ellie Foumbi (Cameroon): Actress, Writer, Director, Producer Ellie is a Cameroonian-American filmmaker whose work has screened at several international film festivals, including Tribeca where her debut film won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. She’s an alum of Berlinale Talents and was recently named one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Her projects have been supported by The Gotham, Film Independent, the Tribeca Film Institute, SFFILM Rainin Grant, and the Venice Biennale College. Ellie’s stories often explore pressing social-political issues within the African diaspora, aiming to shine a light on marginalized populations whose voices are seldom heard or included.

Clarence Abiodun Peters (Nigeria): Filmmaker, music video Director and Cinematographer

The world premiere of Clarence A. Peters’ thrilling new Nigerian drama series Inside Life is screening as part of BEYOND NOLLYWOOD.

John Barker (South Africa): Writer, Director, Producer

John Barker is the Writer & Director of feature-length narrative film The Umbrella Men, which is having its European premiere as part of Film Africa.

Branwen Okpako (Nigeria): Writer, Director, Producer

Branwen Okpako is the Writer & Director of feature-length docudrama Return to Chibok, based on Helon Habila’s acclaimed account of the Boko Haram kidnappings. Return to Chibok is having its World premiere as part of Film Africa.

Maryam Touzani (Morocco): Writer, Director

Maryam Touzani is the Writer and Director of Le Bleu du Caftan (The Blue Caftan) which is showing as part of Film Africa and LFF.

Babetida Sadjo (Guinea-Bissau): Actress, Writer, Director

Babetida Sadjo is the Lead Actress in of our opening film Our Father, the Devil and the Director of the short film Hématome, which is screening as part of our Baobab Shorts strand.

Film Africa Team:
Desta Haile - Deputy Director, The Royal African Society

Desta is a British-Eritrean writer, educator and consultant with a background in intercultural communication, social justice and the performing arts. Winner of To Speak Europe in Different Languages in 2020, and Afritondo Short Story Prize in 2021, Desta has also designed and delivered Languages through Music workshops for Africa Utopia at Southbank Centre and BOZAR Afropolitan Festival.

Sarah Wechselberger - Festival Producer, Film Africa
Sarah Wechselberger is a freelance producer and curator with a focus on contemporary African cinema and arts. With a degree in African Studies from the University of Vienna and Humboldt University of Berlin, Sarah has worked with leading festivals and cultural institutions across Africa, Europe and the United States.

Wilfred Okiche – Curator, Film Africa
Wilfred Okiche is one of the most influential critics working in the African culture space. He has attended critic programs and reported from film and theatre festivals in Locarno, Rotterdam, Stockholm and Sundance. Wilfred has worked on the selection teams for the Encounters International Documentary Festival in South Africa and the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in Lagos. He has mentored fast rising film critics at Talents Durban and worked on the selection committee of Berlinale Talents. His writing has appeared in Variety, IndieWire and The Continent among other publications. He is a member of FIPRESCI and has participated in juries at the Berlinale and the Carthage film festival.

Aseye Tamakloe – Curator, Film Africa
Aseye Tamakloe is a producer, director, freelance editor for film and television, a lecturer at the National film and Television Institute, and a frequent contributor to scholarly and technical forums both in Africa and in Europe. Her works include:  the documentary film Archives of Activism under the project Gender and Public History in Postcolonial Ghana, Standards of Migration with Generation Africa, Perfect Picture by Shirley Frimpong –Manso, Chronicles of Odumkrom; The Headmaster by Ernest Kofi Abbeyquaye, Who is Afraid of Ngugi (2006) by Manthia Diawara and Freetown by Garret Barty.

Aseye is the founder and festival director of NDIVA WOMEN’S FILM FESTIVAL - a festival that aims to create artistic platforms for the presentation and preservation of work by, for and about women.

Nyambura M. Waruingi – Curator, Film Africa
Nyambura M. Waruingi is a cultural activist, producer and disruptor with a 20-year career in film, television, theatre, and visual arts. She has worked with award-winning production companies, renowned public cultural institutions, and innovative film and visual arts collectives in Canada, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, USA, India, and Uganda. She has been a juror at Mashariki African Film Festival 2019 (Rwanda), Artistic Director and Curator of NOMA!: An XR Experience (Kenya), as well as Curator and Producer for the European Film Festival 2018 & 2019 (Kenya) and No Direct Flight (UK/Kenya/USA), among others.

Programme Partners:
Nadia Denton
Nadia Denton is a curator, producer, event organiser and author of the book Beyond Nollywood. Former director of the Black Filmmaker Magazine International Film Festival and founder of Beyond Nollywood, she has worked with Film Festivals all over the world, including LFF, Sundance, Durban Filmmart, Tribeca, BBC Arabic Film Festival, and Lights, Camera, Africa Film Festival.

Mo Abudu, Founder, EbonyLife Media
Mo Abudu founed EbonyLife TV, which later became a subsidiary of EbonyLife Media, in 2006. EbonyLife Media is part of the EbonyLife Group which is Nigeria’s premium media conglomerate comprising. EbonyLife Media believes in creating original and inspiring content that showcases a pioneering and progressive Africa. Through a range of co-production deals with international studios, broadcasters and platforms, the company is creating content that is strongly rooted in Africa and connected to a global audience, through a shared identity and common values.

Nikki Stratton, Co-founder & Director, Deaffest & Zebra Uno
Nikki Stratton co-founded Zebra Uno with Marilyn Willrich  in 2003 . They are committed to developing people’s skills through delivering both hands-on and theory-based media and deaf awareness training and consultation across the UK. In 2006, Nikki and Marilyn co-founded Deaffest, the UK’s leading Deaf-led Film & Arts Festival which is now recognised globally.