CINEFEMMES RWANDA is staging its 6th annual edition and also its biggest project dubbed ‘Urusaro International Women Film Festival’ which kicked off yesterday October 4, till October 11, at Canal Olympia, Rebero in Kigali.

Under the annual theme "Collectivity: Driving force for cinema" the festival aims at empowering women producers in the movie industry. The festival will be held virtually and will showcase two movies per day at ICT Innovation center in Kicukiro district.

‘‘Two movies will be screened per day and those interested will apply through our platform. Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the selected twenty people that will attend the screening and all the covid-19 restrictions will be observed,’’ Floriane Kaneza, the director of festivals at Cinefemmes said at a press conference held on Monday, October 4.

According to Kaneza, the main objective of this festival is the promotion of women empowerment movies and the film industry in general and the professional development of filmmaking as well as the attempt to highlight the role of women in this profession across the world.

 ‘‘Women and men are allowed to apply and show their movie or documentary, the only requirement is that it has to contain a women empowering message for women in society,’ she said.

She added that due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s festival will not contain a lot of activities but will showcase the best movies. The movies to be showcased this year include movies Sudan, United States of America, Belgium, Rwanda and other different countries even though their producers will not be able to attend due to different reasons.

During the festival we will showcase the one-year long project results of the 5th edition of Urusaro International Women Film Festival, she continued, and launch officially the starting of the next year’s project.

Jacqueline Murekeyisoni, CEO of Cinefemme, said that the annual festival has currently presented positive results and that the number of women in the movie industry has increased not only in acting but also in different cinema departments across the globe.

‘‘We do not have a specific number of women in the movie industry particularly in Rwanda but we a project which seeks to find out the specific and detailed number,’’ she says.

‘‘We strive to raise awareness of the benefits that society will get through women empowerment in the movie industry. We want to ease the challenges women in this career face which discourages them and causes them to quit. It is an ongoing journey, but we believe it will be achieved seeing the results we get from what we are doing,’’ she highlighted.

 Cinéfemmes is an international women led organisation which is aimed to strive for development through Cinema and gender equality but particularly to contribute to the integration of different spheres of the Rwandan communities by emphasizing on women and youth.