Kenyan Filmmaker Hawa Essuman Wins Director's Eye €25,000 Prize in Spain

Kenyan filmmaker Hawa Essuman

More kudos to Kenyan filmmaker Hawa Essuman's supernatural screenplay titled Djin, which has won the Director’s Eye prize at the 9th African Film Festival of Cordoba (Spain); the award comes with 25,000 euro (or about $32,600) to be used in development.

This marks yet another funding coup for the project, which, in January, was 1 of 36 entries selected for Rotterdam’s 29th co-production market CineMart, where it was presented to 850 potential co-financiers.

The acclaimed director of Soul Boy, her 2010 feature film debut (which was produced by Tom Tykwer - director of Run Lola, Run, Cloud Atlas), saw her Djin awarded the Director's Eye prize from a selection of 6 feature film scripts, which participated in the 4th Forum for African Co-production at Cordoba.

Special mention went to Salme’s Freedom, by Mira Tanna-Händel (also from Kenya).

Look for individual profiles of the other 5 runners-up: Sweet Justice, by Ekwa Msangi-Omari (Tanzania, U.S., Kenya);  Kiloshe, by Victoria Thomas (Sierra Leone); La batârde, by Uda Benyamina/ Malik Rumeau (Morocco, Syria, France); and La Bande à Salomon, by Kivu Ruhorahoza (Rwanda).

Full Article at Indiewire.com.