Winners of the 4th Pan-African film festival in Cannes

The jury of the Fourth Edition of the Cannes Pan African Film Festival, presided by Mrs. Pascale OBOLO, made the following awards:

• The DIKALO award for best feature film to Sergio Bianchi for his film "What is it worth ?"(Brazil)

• The Pan African Award for the best feature (jury creation) to Sol de Carvalho for "Le jardin d’un autre home [An other man’s garden]" (Mozambique)
• The DIKALO award for the best short film: ex aequo

Gérard Essomba : "L’enfant peau rouge [The Redskin Child " (Cameroun)

Tami Ravid : "Samual"( Holland)

• The Special Jury Award : to Cécile Vernant’s work "Il était une fois...Sasha et Désiré [Once upon a time ... Sacha and Désiré]" (France)

• The DIKALO award for the best documentary to Kal Touré for "Victimes de nos richesses : pays pillés...[Victimes of our riches: pillaged countries]" (Mali)

• The Special Award for the Best Actor to Mugisha Feruzi for his performance in Nicole Parker’s film "The Plague(USA)

The 2007 edition will be remembered for the quality of the films presented. The festival organiser, Basile Ngangue Ebelle (pictured right with Cecile Vernant), was awarded a Médaille de Verneil by the French Academy of Arts, Science & Letters for his work just prior to the festival.

Canada dominates interactive Emmies at MIPTV

The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences has announced the winners for the International Interactive Emmy® Awards, organized for the second year in a row at MIPTV in Cannes, France in partnership with Reed MIDEM and hosted by actor Roger Bart (Desperate Housewives, The Producers).

Canada led the evening with Zimmer Twins and ReGenesis Extended Reality Game in a tie for the Interactive Program category and BITE Television winning the Interactive Channel category, while the Interactive TV Service category went to the UK’s BBCi.

The Pioneer Prize was presented to BSkyB, for their innovative contributions to the field of interactive television and accepted by Sophie Turner-Laing (photo), Managing Director, Sky Entertainment.

The black-tie ceremony was attended by over 250 international executives from the television, broadband and mobile industries including sponsors: AETN, Deutsche Telekom, Intent Mediaworks, MPS Broadband, Nokia and Sky.

The 35th International Emmy Awards Gala will be held in New York, November 19, 2007.

2007 INTERNATIONAL INTERACTIVE EMMY® AWARD WINNERS

INTERACTIVE PROGRAM

ReGenesis Extended
Reality Game
Xenophile Media
Canada

Zimmer Twins
Lost the Plot Productions/
Zinc Roe Design
Canada

INTERACTIVE CHANNEL

BITE Television
BITE Television
Canada

INTERACTIVE TV SERVICE

BBCi
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
United Kingdom

MIPTV announces the Content 360 finalists

MIPTV featuring MILIA, Cannes' audiovisual and digital content market, has just announced the 25 finalists for the second edition of “Content 360,” the international competition to commission innovative, interactive content and applications for mobile and broadband.

“Content 360” is organised in partnership with the BBC, the Korean Broadcasting Commission (KBC), the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and for the first time WPP’s OgilvyOne Worldwide and Yahoo!

The call for entries received an enthusiastic response from hundreds of international multimedia and application developers. A total of 450 projects from 36 countries were entered compared to 186 projects from 23 countries last year. 240 companies from countries as diverse as Mexico, Australia, Sweden, South Africa, US, France, Canada, Italy, South Korea, UK, India, Singapore… entered projects in this year’s competition. A total of €100,000 in funding will be awarded at MIPTV on April 19. For more details, visit Content 360.

4th pan-African film festival in Cannes

Now referred to as "the other" festival in Cannes, the Festival of Pan-African Film will kick off in Cannes on April 11-15 at the Espace Miramar. As the name implies, all 50 films reflect African and African-related themes, with films coming from Africa itself, of course, Europe and the US. 15 films are in competition for Dikalo awards. Notable films this year include:

* "The Inevitable Undoing of Jay Brooks", by Jennifer Sharp (USA)
* "Another Man’s Do, Garden", by Sol de Carvalho (Mozambique)
* "Confidences", by Cyrille Masso (Cameroon)
* "Adolfo", by Sofi Delaage (France/Cuba)
* "Le rendez-vous", by Sarra Abidi (Tunisia)

The festival also hosts concerts, scriptwriting workshops and fashion shows. For details, visit le Festival du Film Panafricain.

Cannes Lions open for entries

The annual advertising fair, Cannes Lions (17-23 June 2007), is now open for entries. There are 10 sections in all, with different cut-off dates:

Entry deadlines:
Press Lions Entries: 9 March 2007
Outdoor Lions Entries: 9 March 2007
Film Lions Entries: 9 March 2007
Radio Lions Entries: 16 March 2007
Direct Lions Entries: 16 March 2007
Promo Lions Entries: 16 March 2007
Media Lions Entries: 16 March 2007
Cyber Lions Entries: 23 March 2007
Titanium and Integrated Lions Entries: 23 March 2007

In related news, it has also been announced that one of Brazil's most respected communications professionals, Geraldo Rocha Azevedo, has been appointed as the 2007 Promo Lions Jury President. For full details, visit Cannes Lions.

MIPTV: Content 360 pitch deadline

Digital creators, interactive agencies, independent producers, internet and mobile application providers have a dedicated pitching event at MIPTV (April 16-20 2006). Content 360 offers a chance to generate new opportunities with the global entertainment industry and win part of €100,000 in development funding. This year, Content 360 is calling for entries in eight categories. For full details, visit the MIPTV 360 site.

But most importantly, don't forget the deadline: February 9, 2006.

Young creatives "come back for pleasure"

I almost forgot to mention this little gem. The Cannes Lions, Shots magazine and the City of Cannes ran a competition for a campaign to encourage visitors to come back to Cannes. The fun part was they were given a super-duper Nokia phone and Apple editing software and told to come back in three days with the film. The winners, Roos de Kok from Cygnus X-3 and Liat Azulay of Euro RSCG, focused on businessmean "rather than the more glamorous part of the brief".

I'll leave you to discover the film on Shots, with the full article here.