'Our relationship was the story': Film Development Fund - Ethiopia
In May 2021, five Ethiopian filmmakers were selected as the first grantees of DW Akademie Film Development Fund. The goal of the fund is to support filmmakers from the Global South by giving them the resources they need to develop their creative film projects. The project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
The five grantees were Beza Hailu Lemma, Hiwot Admasu Getaneh, Dirbdil Assefa Akirso, Henok Mebratu and Abraham Gezahagne Assefa. After being named, the filmmakers were each paired with a mentor that would accompany them for a year for the development stage of their projects, the critical phase of filmmaking when a filmmaker develops an idea into a screenplay, makes production plans and creates a budget.
Accompanying the mentees were accomplished film industry veterans, including Philippe Lacôte, a film director from Côte d'Ivoire (Beza), Hawa Essuman, a filmmaker, writer, director and producer (Hiwot), Heidi Fleisher, an American documentary film producer and consultant based in Paris (Dirbdil), Amjad Abu Alaa, a Sudanese director and producer (Henok), and Lorna Tee, a pan-Asian film producer and festival curator (Abraham).
The project also benefitted greatly from the engagement of Tamara Dawit, a producer with many years of experience working within the film industry in Ethiopia. For Dawit, development funding has a critical role in supporting filmmakers so that the content is stronger and thus, more competitive in the international marketplace. Read More...
