Graduate Shams Bhanji has won the Special Jury Prize at the Khouribga African Film Festival for his feature ZAMORA . Previous awards include Special Jury Prize and Best East African Film at the 2012 Zanzibar International Film Festival and a special award at FESPACO for best digital film.
Full press release below.
Khouribga, June 20, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For the first time, an East African film garners a prestigious award at the Khouribga African Film Festival.
The Khouribga African Film Festival is pleased to announce that the film, ZAMORA, by Director Shams Bhanji is the winner of this year’s Special Jury Prize. This historic win represents several firsts: the first time a film from Zanzibar/Tanzania has been included in the Khouribga African Film Festival and a first-time win for a film from East Africa. Jury member Sanaa Alaoui emphasized the jury’s difficulty in discerning this year’s prizes, because of the overall high quality of the films in competition. Seventeen films from fifteen African countries competed in this 16th edition of the Khouribga festival, the second most important rendezvous for African film on the continent, after FESPACO. She added that ZAMORA nevertheless stood out for its originality, its poetry, and its imagery. Earlier this year ZAMORA won a special award at FESPACO for best digital film.
Last year ZAMORA won a special jury prize (Silver Dhow) as well as Best East African Film at the 2012 Zanzibar International Film Festival.
The film’s director, Shams Bhanji, was accompanied by his two lead actors, Richard Bezuidenhout and Richa Adhia. The film is in Swahili with English subtitles.
A native of Zanzibar, Bhanji grew up partially in Kenya; he dates his passion for cinema from his childhood, when his father regularly organized open air screenings of 16 mm films that he rented from 20th Century Fox. Bhanji later studied filmmaking at the London International Film School. ZAMORA is his first feature. It tells the story of one’s poetic evolution in his quest to find true love.
Lahoussaine Ndoufi, the Director of the Khouribga African Film Festival added that he hoped that the award would encourage Shams Bhanji to consider co-producing his next film with the Centre Cinématographique Marocain.
