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.

Mr Bean does Cannes

Although not many people actually noticed it, a film was being shot at last year's Cannes festival: "Mr Bean's Holiday", the second feature from Rowan Atkinson's comic character. In the film, Mr Bean buys a raffle ticket and through a series of tricks and mishaps finds himself on a train to Cannes with a video camera. He meets a range of movie characters and becomes one of the sensations on the Croisette.

The reviews are so-so. But a few quotes caught my attention. The film is in many ways a homage to the French comic Jacques Tati and his classic "Mr Hulot's Holiday". One of the characters in the film is an ego-driven director played by Daniel Dafoe. "My comedy in the film... is less slapstick and more parody," he told the Glasgow Herald. "A very thin parody, though, because my character is pretty close to the real world. I've seen some things on film sets. What you see in Mr Bean's Holiday is nothing. As far as film-makers go, I like the crazy ones as opposed to the quiet ones."

Atkinson is known for comedy classics such as "Blackadder", "Not the Nine O'Clock News" and "Mr Bean", as well as films such as "Love, Actually" and "Scooby Doo". "Mr Bean's Holiday" is being released in the UK on March 30, followed by other European countries through April. US release is slated for August.

Rowan Atkinson on Amazon UK

Rowan Atkinson on Amazon US

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.

"Paris je t'aime": divorce, French-style

Legal proceedings are again creating a cloud over Cannes this year. The Chinese film "Summer Palace" by Lou Ye is being held up by the Chinese censorship authorities, although the festival has vowed to screen the film anyway. Meawhile, French producer Emmanuel Benbihy has asked for a court injunction to block "Paris, je t'aime", a series of Paris-based shorts directed by Gus Van Sant and Gurinder Chadha amongst others. Contributions from film-makers Raphael Nadjari and Christoffer Boe were cut. This led Benbihy to complain it was not the film he engaged to co-produce. It is set to screen on Thursday evening - if the courts allow it.

Pan-African Film fest makes Cannes award

Originally posted Feb 21, 2006. DIKALO AWARDS - 2006 The winners of the third edition of the Panafrican Film Festival 11th to 19th February - Cannes, France

The Jury of the third edition of the Panafrican Film Festival, led by Mrs Jeanne ROMANA granted the following awards:

The DIKALO award for the best full-lenght movie was granted to "ROBLE DE OLOR" by director Rigoberto LOPEZ (Cuba) .

The DIKALO award for best short film was granted to "SAFI" by director Raso GANEMTORE (Burkina Faso) .

The DIKALO award for best documentary was granted to "CALYPSO@DIRTY JIM'S" by director Pascale OBOLO (France / Cameroon). A special award was granted by the jury to the documentary film "TANKAFATRA" directed by Hery A. RASALO (Madagascar).

The Pan-African Film festival is sometimes called the "other Cannes film festival". For details, visit their website