UNESCO-Nara Film Residency: Screening of four films by young African women filmmakers

UNESCO will host a screening of four short films by young women African filmmakers in the evening of 7 June 2023 in Room I at 6:45pm, organized in the margins of the 9^th session of the Conference of Parties to the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. 

The films, selected by a panel of juries among 9 short films, are the results of the UNESCO-Nara residency programme for young African women filmmakers. Young women filmmakers from 5 African countries (Burkina Faso, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa) were selected through an open call to participate in a two-week residency, which took place in June 2022 in Nara, Japan, under the supervision of Ms. Naomi Kawase, acclaimed Japanese filmmaker and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Cultural and Creative Industries.

Funded by the Japanese Government, the residency enabled 9 young African female filmmakers to write, direct and each produce a 10-minute film in the city of Nara, Japan. The programme supported the increased mobility of these women filmmakers to participate in the international film scene and also promoted their films’ market access. The films premiered at the 2022 Nara International Film Festival (“Grand Voyage with Africa”) in September 2022. The films were also screened at FESPACO 2023 in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Burkina Faso.