THE PERSISTENT SITUATION OF THE COVID-19 pandemic has forced Ishusho Arts, the organising company of the annual Rwanda International Movie Awards (RIMA), to postpone the awards to July 2, from the initial date, March 5, as they continue to closely monitor the situation. 

The decision comes after the organisers realised that some key events of the awards would not be able to take place before the public as anticipated since the pandemic continues to pose threat to entertainment events targeting public attendance.

In a press statement issued on Saturday, January 15, Jackson Mucyo, the Executive Director of Ishyo Arts said that they had no choice but to delay some key events of the awards for them to successfully organise the awards as much as they planned.

"Due to COVID -19 measures, Ishusho Arts would like to inform the general public, and partners and all participants that the highly-anticipated eighth edition of Rwanda International Movie Awards has been postponed including events and our set activities,” Mucyo said in a statement.

According to the statement, registration of entries will be accepted until January 31, while the activity of announcing nominations, which was initially slated for January 15, will resume on June 3, the same day when the Rwanda Movie Week will kick off.

The RIMA 2022 winners will be announced during the award giving gala slated for July 2.

The Rwanda International Movie Awards event recognizes the finest films produced by Rwandan and foreign movie producers.

This year’s edition will see the increase in prizes, with organisers set to recognize outstanding filmmakers in 32 categories, up from 23 given out during the seventh edition two years ago.

Among the categories added in the awards include the Best Child Actor, and Best Child Actress which were initiated to motivate children as well as Best Cultural content, a prize that will be given out to a filmmaker whose content promotes culture, among others.

The latter also goes in line with this year’s awards theme "Inclusion of My Culture into the Audio-Visual Industry” as an occasion to encourage cultural promotion in the film industry.

While trophies are lined-up for every award winner, the winners in the ‘Best Choice Actor’ and ‘Best Choice Actress’ of the year award winners will see themselves tussling out for a car, the grand prize in this year’s awards.

The car prize will go to one with the highest number of votes between the two while the second will be given a cheque worth an amount that is yet to be communicated but less the value of the car given to the winner.