Rwanda wins prestigious film prizes in Spain

Friday evening, October 20, the 9th edition of the African Film Festival of Cordoba-FCAT celebrated its closing ceremony in which young Rwandan filmmaker Kivu Ruhorahoza was awarded two of the main event’s prizes: the honorary Griot Award for ‘Best Director’ and the SIGNIS Award for ‘Best Feature Length Narrative Film’ for his movie MATIÈRE GRISE (Grey Matter). The FCAT jury highlighted Ruhorahoza’s work “for the courage to speak out against the devastating effects of war on youth”.Ruhorahoza expressed his gratitude for these distinctions, since his work was decorated in competition with other six films from Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Senegal and Mozambique, all of them produced in the last two years. With these new Spanish awards and the success achieved in other international festivals, Matière Grise (Grey Matter) is highlighting Rwandan cinema in the world.After several experiences on short and documentary world, Ruhorahoza made his debut as feature film director, taking his native country to cinema world. ‘Grey Matter’ is one of the first feature films written and directed by a Rwandan filmmaker, with a completely Rwandan cast. ‘Grey Matter’ achieved a Special Jury Mention for the ‘Best New Narrative Director’ on the famous Canadian Tribeca Film Festival. Moving on to the cast, the film is starring renowned actor and co-funder of Comedy Knights Hervñe Kimenyi, actress and singer Nirere Ruth (Shanel) and Ramadhan “Shami” Bizimana, who won the ‘Best Actor Award’ on the Tribeca Film Festival.Together with these two prizes for Rwanda cinema, the 9th African Film Festival of Cordoba has granted nine other awards to seven African films. The jury of “the African Dream” section for feature-length films, composed of Sylvia Perel (Argentina), Tanya Valette (Dominican Republic) and Carolyn Kamya (Uganda) has selected the winning films out of 7 films in competition, from countries such as Rwanda, Egypt, South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Senegal and Mozambique.

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Rwanda wins prestigious film prizes in Spain