Somali director Ahmed Khadar won the Yennenga Gold Standard on Saturday 23 October at the 27th Pan-African Film and Television Festival in Ouagadougou (Fespaco) for his film The Gravedigger’s Wife.
The 40-year-old director did not take part in the closing ceremony of the festival in the Burkinabe capital. The president of the jury which awarded him the prize, Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako, declared that “For any African filmmaker, this is the best prize we can have, it is a source of pride”.
17 films were in the running in the fictional feature film category with a view to winning the Yénnenga Gold Standard, Fespaco’s supreme award and succeeding The Mercy by Rwandan Joël Karekezi, awarded in 2019.
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Friday evening had been unveiled the winners of the best TV series and animated films, and awarded fifteen special prizes.
With Walabok, how are the youth?, Senegalese Fatoumata Kane won first prize for best TV series, while Gabonese Samantha Biffot won second prize with Mami wata: the mystery of Iveza ». “The best African series was a surprise for the jury. We were unanimous because it’s a very unique series that mixes documentary and fiction, shot for years ”, said the president of the jury “TV series and animated films”, Frédéric Lavigne.
In the animated films category, Akplokplobito, a film by Togolese Ingrid Agbo on the stigmatization of women, won the first prize. The second was awarded to Dinkan Valley, of the Guinean Mohamed Kaba.
With three special prizes, including that of the best female filmmaker in West Africa, for her documentary film Zinder which deals with gang violence in the ostracized neighborhoods of her hometown, the Nigerian director Aïcha Macky was strongly applauded.
The three lads, by Boubacar Diallo, the only Burkinabe film in official competition in the feature film category, won one of the most coveted special prizes, that of the integration of the West African Development Economic Community.
In the short film section, the Thomas Sankara Prize, awarded by the African Guild of Directors and Producers, rewarded Tuk-Tuk of the Egyptian Mohamed Kheidr, who also won the luck prize of the National Lottery of Burkina Faso.