The films come from 35 countries with 38 short films, 23 feature length films and 18 documentaries. Included in this lineup is the Oscar nominated film Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom which will be the opening film of the festival.
There will also be two world premieres taking place during ZIFF with Sean Hodgkinson (Trinidad & Tobago) hosting the world premiere of his film A Story About Wendy 2. The second premiere reflects the undying links of culture that ZIFF has with the East African community, with Malawi's Bela continuing in the path forged some years ago with Malawi's first major feature film Seasons of Life.
ZIFF will welcome over two dozen filmmakers from around the world who will present their works as well as host workshops. A special script writing workshop to be facilitated by UK's top filmmakers special guest director Nick Broomfield (Big and Tupac) will also take place.
Visiting directors include Biyi Bandele the director of Half a Yellow Sun which premiered in 2013 at the Toronto Film Festival and was included in the Official Selection for festivals including Dubai, London and Gothenburg.
Also attending ZIFF this year and joining Bandele in running script writing workshops will be Don Edkins from South Africa. Edkins is a well-known documentary filmmaker and producer. The 15 workshop trainees will come from the five countries of the East African community.
ZIFF is also proud to welcome Sadegh Daghighi from Iran. His 2013 film, Little Hero about the Iran/Iraq war is the latest in over 300 documentary and short films he has produced.
Other filmmakers attending the festival include:
Ousmane Sembène Award
The Ousmane Sembène Films for Development Award film prize is to be awarded for the fifth time at the ZIFF to a film focused on development policy issues. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH is the main sponsor of the prize along with ZIFF. The prize money worth $5,000 will help the winner in their future filmmaking career.
This year, ZIFF will also screen a series of Swahili language films at its new venue, the Double Tree Hilton. Daily screenings from 15-22 June will see eight nominated films compete for the six Zuku Bongo movie awards for technical excellence in the industry. Zuku awards include Best Male and Female Actors, Director, Cinematographer, Music and Producer.
With its continuing commitment to developing filmmakers and encouraging dialogue, this year ZIFF offers a range of workshops and forums.
Maisha Film Lab was founded in 2004 as a way to train and empower East African filmmakers. Since then over 400 participants have produced over 30 short films. For the ZIFF MAISHA Lab, 15 participants were selected from a pool of applicants based on their short screenplay ideas. The screenwriting lab participants will have networking opportunities with their fellow filmmakers and their community, as well as with their mentors. This is the first time the Maisha lab will be run in Kiswahili language.
In April 2014 Zuku announced its desire to commission feature length Swahili films for broadcast on Zuku Swahili Movies, the only TV channel dedicated to showcasing the best of Swahili films 24/7. Zuku Swahili Movies is a premium movie channel tailor-made for all audiences within the East African region.
The five selected scripts will undergo development with renowned film directors and script writers including
Filmmakers from East Africa (three from each country- Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania) will attend this workshop. The workshop is funded by the East African community in collaboration with the GIZ.
Collaboration of Tanzania Media Fund (TMF) and ZIFF. This workshop aims at bringing together practising media journalists around issues of common interest in advancing critical and investigative journalism. This time around we invite 10 journalists to ZIFF and provide them with a critical and cultural context for them to practise a range of multimedia journalism within the creative media industries available during ZIFF.
In the unity of commentary and creative practices we see the seeds of inspirational production, where philosophizing is not seen as a separate activity from production itself. In these circumstances the completed film (or a creative) work can potentially provide and inspiration for another creative work without the verbal or written commentary.
Other events
Over the years, ZIFF has used the platform of the Women's Panorama to highlight and address pertinent gender, health and social issues. The Panorama therefore becomes a medium of women's power and visibility. The Women's Panorama commonly comprises a series of workshops, seminars and symposia organised and centred on the visibility of women in and through the medium of cinema, the arts and the media.
The Village Panorama Press Conference on 16 June at 5pm is a chance for all Zanzibaris to participate in the ZIFF. A panorama of films is taken out to the villages of Zanzibar combining an assortment of educational and entertainment films. A mobile video unit van tours the villages creating an evening in each where the whole community is able to watch a program of films. The panorama visits five villages, which are well distributed over the island and will screen the Why Poverty films in Kiswahili.
The Difficult Dialogue Forum: Land & The Environment on 18 June at the Old Fort Ampitheatre is open to the public and presents a chance for experts and the lay-person to engage in discussions about topical issues. This year's issue looks at land and the environment.
An exhibition from France, the Tryptic by Les 7 Portes/Sisygambis will be on offer for seven days of the festival while popular art and fashion exhibition Afrika Tumefika from Uganda will also be featured.
Music-wise the festival will feature 13 performing groups with Didier Award, the Senegalese maestro performing on the opening night on 14 June. The closing night will see the Habib Koite and his band perform in the Mambo Club. Groups from Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa are scheduled to entice audiences for the duration of the festival.
With the 10-year event sponsorship of Zuku, ZIFF has seen more sponsors come aboard acknowledging the role that the arts play in each community. Last year it welcomed Tanzania Media Fund, ComNet, Cello, and United Petroleum.
This year it welcomes the Fastjet, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Double Tree Hilton Hotel, The ARTerial Network and Steps International.
To ensure that visitors are able to get their tickets in time and conveniently ZIFF has entered into an agreement with 3G Directpay, which will provide with the online payment service for the nine-day bounty of special programming and festivities. Passes will be available for purchase at www.ziff.or.tz.
