Festival date late May / early June | Founded 2008 | |
Language African languages, French, English Website galwayafricanfilmfestival.org | ||
Galway African Film Festival (GAFF) is an annual African film festival taking place in Galway on the west coast of Ireland in late May / early June to coincide with Africa Day an annual commemoration on 25 May of the 1963 founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). It aims to showcase the wealth and diversity of African film that would otherwise be inaccessible to Galway audiences. Secondly, the Festival aims to reflect and celebrate the culturally diverse profile of Galway society, the city with the highest percentage (2.8%) of people from African countries. The Festival is organised by the Galway One World Centre in collaboration with the Huston School of Film & Digital Media and the Galway Film Society. Venues for screenings of films have included the Town Hall Theatre, Huston School of Film & Digital Media, and Nuns Island Theatre. The Festival is supported by Irish Aid, Galway City Arts Office, Galway City Council and the Galway Advertiser.
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Programme
The Festival offers a big variety of genres of African Cinema, including documentaries, children's films, shorts, classic and contemporaries. The films are normally not on general release within the Republic, thereby providing people in Ireland an opportunity to see the continent of Africa through a perspective that is different from Hollywood . Guests at the Festival have included Keith Shiri (Africa at the Pictures, London), Alex Ogou (Lead Actor, Clouds over Conakry), Tandeka Matatu (Producer, Jerusalema) and Andrew Webber (Editor, Mirror Boy). Films in 2010 included The Figurine Araromire (Nigeria), Mascarades (France/Algeria) and A Sting in a Tale (Ghana), while in 2011, the festival included acclaimed movies Benda Bilili (Congo), Microphone (Egypt) and The Atlete (Ethiopia). In 2012 highlights included Viva Riva, an award-winning Congolese drama, two Egyptian films about the Arab Spring of 2011 and an Ethiopian / UK co-production, Town of Runners.
History
The Galway African Film Festival was established in 2008.
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
The tenth festival takes place in May 2017 in NUI Galway's Huston School of Film & Digital Media.