6 August, 2019 - 08:02
The Ladima Foundation announced the formation of a network of women-focused and managed film and cultural festivals from across Africa. The first major training and development intervention for this network will be taking place later this month in Kigali, Rwanda with an intensive residency program for the staff of these partner festivals.
The network currently includes the Udada International Film Festival in Nairobi Kenya, the Urusaro International Womens Festival from Rwanda, The Celebrating Womanhood Festival and Conference in Uganda, and Festival International des Films de Femmes de Cotonou (Cotonou International Womens Film Festival Benin.
An initial training and mentoring session took place in March in Kampala Uganda at the Celebrating Womanhood Festival, part of the Native Voices International event. Edima Otuokon, co-founder of the Ladima Foundation hosted a workshop for female filmmakers invited to the festival on the power of film to empower and uplift women across Africa.
The Ladima Foundation is now excited to announce the first of its formal residency program for all four festival partners that will include the Festival Directors / CEOs of these film festivals. This training will be taking place from August 13th - 17th in Kigali, Rwanda.
As an important aspect of festival management, programming must create and plan scheduled activities for visitors and participants that optimise visitor experience, increase participation of targeted demographic, whilst still maintaining the cultural integrity, vision and theme of the festival.
Some common issues with female focused festivals across Africa are their inability to:
develop engaging festival programming;
get the required number of film submissions to hold a festival;
publicise and market their event efficiently and effectively;
develop strategic partnerships and relationships; and,
fund most of their activities.
Furthermore, the timing of the female focused festivals often coincides with other more established festivals in Africa, Europe and North America and they have to contend with festivals like Berlinale, Toronto International Film Festival and Cannes that call for African film submissions too.
The residency program aims to increase the artistic, technical and management skills of womens film festival management teams in Africa. The in-depth and interactive program will provide networking opportunities for womens film festival CEOs/Directors across Africa to enhance the sharing of best practice and collaboration.
Topics to be covered will include the curation and strategic positioning of festivals, funding, film festival partnerships and linkages, marketing and publicity, proposal writing etc.
The program will be facilitated by a range of experts from within the Ladima Foundation as well as additional support from Maxa Zoller, the Artistic Director of the International Womens Film Festival of Dortmund/ Cologne, one of Europes longest running and most successful womens film festivals.
The other facilitators include The Ladima Foundations Lara Utian (South Africa), who has many years of experience in film festival production, marketing, and publicity management, Edima Otuokon, (Nigeria), a policy and business development expert as well as a film industry expert, and Lydia Idakula Sobogun, (Nigeria), a filmmaker, arts activist and consultant.
This residency program is the first of a number of similar training programs that will be held on an on-going basis in order to further support women filmmakers and festivals across the African continent.
Film Festivals
Africa Rwanda
Africa Stories
13/10/2026
The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Mr Gayton McKenzie, invites suitably qu...
13/10/2026
The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Mr Gayton McKenzie, invites members of ...
07/10/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce the extensi...
02/10/2026
01 October 2026 | Johannesburg, South Africa - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an entity of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), is ...
01/10/2026
Johannesburg, South Africa, 30 September 2026 - The National Film and Video Foun...
23/09/2026
1. ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) invites applications from experienced producers who own or manage a South African product...
23/09/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce the opening...
17/09/2026
The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), in partnership with the Nation...
16/09/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) invites eligible South African pro...
09/09/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) invites eligible Tier 1 and 2 South African production companies to submit proposals to serve as the Facilitating ...
05/09/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
18/08/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
15/08/2026
14 August 2026 | Johannesburg - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), a...
14/08/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Ar...
08/08/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
28/07/2026
27 July 2026, Johannesburg - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an a...
20/07/2026
The NFVF, an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, has released t...
09/07/2026
08 July 2026, Johannesburg - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an a...
06/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
01/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
10/06/2026
Production and Development Funding supports the creation of compelling, commercially viable, artistic and culturally relevant South African screen content. Deve...
09/06/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is a statutory body mandated to spearhead the equitable growth and development of the South African film and video...
19/05/2026
Press Release
18 May 2026, Johannesburg South Africa has been selected as the...
24/04/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
01/04/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the ca...
26/03/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), has been tasked with administering the Sixth Presi...
24/03/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) invites eligible Tier 1 and 2 South African production companies to submit proposals to serve as the Facilitating ...
15/03/2026
Johannesburg, 14 March 2026 - On 13 and 14 March 2026, the 19th Annual South Afr...
12/03/2026
Johannesburg, 11 March 2026 - The 19th Annual South African Film and Television ...
03/03/2026
Click here for isiXhosa version.
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) invites aspiring and emerging filmmakers from Matatiele and surrounding areas to...
17/02/2026
Johannesburg, 17 February 2026 - The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), ...
09/02/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture and custodian of the SAFTAs, is calling on all South Afri...
09/02/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
09/02/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce that the call for training provider submissions is open. This funding aims to award grants ...
06/02/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
04/02/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) invites final-year animation students to participate in an exclusive creative showcase at the Annecy International...
02/02/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), in partnership with the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), is calling for applications from experienced Sou...
29/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), in collaboration with a distribut...
28/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), in partnership with the Oudtshoorn Municipality, invites aspiring and emerging filmmakers to apply for the Sediba...
20/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
07/01/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), in collaboration with a distributor, is commissioning new micro-budget fiction feature films and invites eligible...
31/10/2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
30 October 2025
It is with great sadness that we mourn the passing of Segomotso Keorapetse, an award- winning South African television d...
29/10/2025
It's not the wonders of the world that make a place; it's the people. As...
07/10/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
02/10/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) is pleased to announce the opening...
6 August, 2019 - 08:02 
