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Africa in Motion 2008 came to an end just over a month ago. The festival was bigger and better than ever before, with over 2,000 people attending the various screenings, workshops, masterclasses and other events. We owe a huge thank you to all our audience members, funders, sponsors, supporters and partners for helping us deliver another hugely successful AiM festival.

The opening weekend of the festival was dedicated to two of the most important African directors - Burkinabe director Gaston Kaboré and Malian director Souleymane Cissé, with screenings of retrospectives of their work. Mr Kaboré delighted audiences with anecdotes and fascinating tales from his filmmaking experiences. We were disappointed that Mr Cissé could not join us in Edinburgh due to visa problems, but audiences still flocked to the screenings of his films and we will certainly invite him back in future years.

From l to r: Burkinabe director Gaston Kabore, festival director Lizelle Bisschoff, festival advisor Mark Cousins, and Kari Ann Shiff, a member of AiM’s organising committee (Photo by Claire Cox)

On the first Saturday of the festival we also screened the eight shortlisted films from our short film competition, and the winner was announced immediately after the screenings. The winning film was selected by a jury consisting of director Gaston Kaboré; writer, presenter and filmmaker Zina Saro-Wiwa; Director of the Scottish Documentary Institute Noe Mendelle; and high-profile film critic, writer and producer Mark Cousins. Congratulations again to Rogerio Manjate from Mozambique whose heart-warming 3-minute short “I Love You” won the short film competition, as well as to Tunisian filmmaker Anis Lassoued whose magic-realist short “The Magic Crop” won the audience choice award. Rogerio will receive £1,000 prize money to assist him in his filmmaking career, sponsored by the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA); SA Direct, a new lifestyle and culture TV channel; and Total Black TV, an online film distributor based in New York.

Still from Mozambican director Rogerio Manjate’s short I Love You

Over the 11 days of the festival we screened over 50 films from 22 African countries, which included brilliant award-winning contemporary features and docs, with many filmmakers in attendance to talk to audiences after screenings. Director Zina Saro-Wiwa talked about her vision of changing how the world sees Africa after the screening of her film This Is My Africa. The club night at the Bongo after the screening of Andy Jones’ music documentary As Old As My Tongue, which featured DJ Rita Ray (a producer on the film) and other African musicians, was a great way to keep warm on a baltic Edinburgh autumn night! A host of Edinburgh-based African musicians entertained audiences after screenings in the Filmhouse cafe. Our Nollywood screenings were thoroughly enjoyed by audiences, with Nigerian director Chucks Mordi in attendance to tell audiences about the struggles and joys of making films within this low-budget video-film industry. Our late-night screenings of African horrors and experimental films over Halloween weekend went down a treat too. South African director Richard Stanley almost got us into trouble by performing a voodoo ritual in the cinema before the screening of his documentary The White Darkness but he just about redeemed himself through the hugely insightful discussion with Trevor Steele Taylor after the screening of Stanley’s cult classic Dust Devil the following evening.

South African film festival programmer Trevor Steele Taylor and director Richard Stanley in discussion (Photo by Kari Ann Shiff)