Film-maker Wins Contract in First EFI Pitching Contest

FILM-MAKER WINS CONTRACT IN FIRST EFI PITCHING CONTEST

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 9 June 2010 – A local film-maker has won the chance to make a short environmental documentary film during a pitching competition organized by the Ethiopian Film Initiative (EFI).   Henok Mebratu, the owner of ACE Advertising, was awarded a production fund of $2,000 for his documentary idea “Are we really that insignificant?” The film will look at the issue of personal responsibility towards the environment by focusing on the lives of three different Ethiopians – a model, a fisherman and a mother.

“I wanted to show how people’s actions, unconscious and deliberate but small, can cause problems to the planet,” Henok said.

The five-member panel judging the competition was made up of distinguished journalists, film-makers and an environmentalist. The panel called Henok’s idea clear and coherent – and an imaginative take on the issue of the environment.

The film was selected as part of EFI’s Pitching Master class held in Addis Ababa between 2 and 8 June, 2010. Altogether ten proposals were selected to be pitched by local film-makers in the final day of competition before an invited audience at the UN ECA on Tuesday 8 June.

The EFI pitching exercise was chaired by Keith Bowers, a founder member of EFI and a former BBC commissioning editor.

He said: “All the local film-makers and producers who took part worked really hard to focus their ideas and make them as convincing as possible. It was great to see how well they responded to the challenge of being asked to present their proposals in a demanding professional way.”

The budget for the winning film was provided by the International Emerging Film Talent Association (IEFTA) based in Monaco. The film is due to be completed by September and will then be shown at a special EFI screening in Addis Ababa. There will also be a screening before a specially invited international audience in Monaco later in the year.

The Ethiopian Film Initiative was established two years ago and is based in Addis Ababa. Among other things it operates as a film lab to provide capacity building support and tools for Ethiopian documentary and feature film-makers as well as a platform for international exposure. It also runs a website www.ethiopianfilminitiative.org which acts as a main portal of resources for the Ethiopian film industry.

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