Organisers of the Rwanda International Movie Awards (RIMA) have announced the return of the awarding-gala after postponing it for several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The event is slated for April 1.

The awards, which are in their eighth edition locally and the second edition since they went international in 2019 are organised by Ishusho Arts since 2011, a local company that focuses on cinema activities with an aim of recognising the finest films produced by Rwandan and foreign movie producers.

Jackson Mucyo, Executive Director of Ishusho Arts revealed that the awarding event was postponed last year due to the pandemic’s regulations that international filmmakers and actors couldn’t meet at the time.

"Most of our international invitees were not fully vaccinated and couldn’t be allowed to fly to Rwanda and since our event is international, we couldn’t pursue with the awards since only local films who were selected to compete would be the only ones present. They requested that we postpone the event and that was the right thing to do,” he said.

According to Mucyo, the awards have had an impactful contribution to the film industry as filmmakers’ creativity continue to show incredible improvement. He said that they expect more countries to participate in the awards’ eighth edition as the event continues to attract more international filmmakers.

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.

RIMA also announced the appointments of Alliance Isimbi best known as Alliah Cool and Aaron Niyomwungeri as the event manager and artistic director, respectively, at Rwanda International Movie Awards 2023 respectively.