The Mashariki African Film Festival (MAAFF) is back. The sixth annual edition runs from March 21-27 at Century Cinema and Cine Star, in the capital Kigali.

A traditional dance entertains revelers during last year's awards ceremony. Courtesy.

This year’s edition will run under the theme, ‘Kagire Inkuru’ (loosely translated to ‘Tell the tale’) and will showcase great films and perspectives that have emerged from the African film industry in recent years.

Workshops and professional master classes

The festival will feature a series of activities like, ‘Girls in cinema’, a workshop aimed at encouraging more women to get involved in cinema; ‘Cut It’, a production filmmaking workshop; and a session themed ‘Disability Is Not Inability’. The former will focus on promoting inclusion of people living with disability in building the industry, during which participants will learn how to produce films using simple electronic devices like phones.

Other side activities will include master classes, panel discussions by international filmmakers, and a Q&A session. The sessions will be followed by an awards ceremony during which outstanding films and filmmakers will be honoured.

Films must be directed by African filmmakers and based on African stories

Meanwhile, out of the 1,000 films submitted, only 55, were selected for screening.

According to the festival's website, entries must be films directed by African filmmakers and based on African stories. However, those produced by non-African filmmakers with stories related to Africa will be considered for the panorama section.

Entries must not have been completed before 2018 and not submitted to previous MAAFF editions. Also, all films must be in English or have English/French subtitles.

This year’s festival has incorporated films into five sections: African feature, African shorts, African documentaries, East African, and the national category "Iz’iwacu”.

The event is expected to be graced by some of the top African film personalities, celebrities, and diplomats.

The festival will showcase films produced by Rwandan and African film industries in recent years.

According to organisers, a list of the official nominees in the 6th of this film festival will be announced very soon.