Latest News
Hollywood Reporter: Film Academy Invites 397 People to Become Members, Including Billie Eilish, Jamie Dornan, Dana Walden and Leonard Maltin
Congratulations to our co-founder Mehret Mandefro for being newly invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 397 members of the global film community to join the organization, it was announced Tuesday.
Among those who will henceforth be able to vote for the Oscar nominations and winners if they accept, as the vast majority of people who have received invites historically have: newly-minted Oscar winners Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell (music branch) and Ariana DeBose and Troy Kotsur (actors); Paramount chief Brian Robbins and Disney general entertainment chief Dana Walden (executives); and film critic Leonard Maltin (members-at-large).
VARIETY: Rotterdam, Sundance Team With Realness To Support African Producers
The Rotterdam Film Festival’s facilitation and talent incubator wing IFFR Pro has teamed with the Sundance Institute, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs and the Realness Institute for Creative Producer Indaba, a year-long professional development initiative aimed at supporting producers from Africa. “The media landscape of Africa is swiftly changing and the importance of local producers that have the training to catalyze the growth of their local markets is paramount,” said Indaba African group leader and Realness Institute co-founder Mehret Mandefro.
EAVE Exclusive Interview
I had a production company in the U.S., but then I came into this market four years now, going on my fifth. I joined a new TV station, Kana TV, that grew quite rapidly, and in the process I saw first hand that it was a really growing industry without the trained professional needed to truly scale it up. I was running around like a madwoman trying to train everyone when I realized that to reform the industry and to try and scale up this effort I was going to have to team up with like-minded people invested in the developing the future of the local media ecosystem. I would say all of anglophone Africa is going through a revolution right now with streamers coming in and Pay TV coming in. We started with satellite TV and it’s growing. It’s really hard to believe, but for the over one hundred million people in Ethiopia private media only started four years ago. Prior to that it was dominated by state run TV. So it’s the beginning of an era and you need institutional support to work in such a tough environment and this is where Elias and I were very much aligned. We both felt the pain of working on our own in a tough landscape and saw the value of creating an institute to support this kind of work and others who were willing to do it. Read more.
Our film has been released
You can now watch our latest film Sweetness in the Belly which which was the largest budget film ever shot in Ethiopia and the first time that a Canadian public financed film was helmed by an African national. Sweetness in the Belly was made with the support of Tourism Ethiopia with the goal of beginning to explore the possibilities of what a co-production financing scheme can look like in Ethiopia.
Watch the film on the following platforms:
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/sweetness-in-the-belly/id1509164216?ls=1
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Sweetness_In_The_Belly?id=_OE4KZ_0UEo.P
VUDU: https://www.vudu.com/content/movies/details/Sweetness-in-the-Belly/1394417
Microsoft XBOX: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/sweetness-in-the-belly/8d6kgwxn1jd2?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab
Vimeo OnDemand: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/sweetnessinthebelly
Sony Playstation: link not available; title confirmed live via Playstation Movies app
Grand Prize for Development at Atlas Workshops
Development winner “Sweet Annoyance” is about love, freedom and women’s emancipation in Addis Ababa. The jury commented that it deals with a subject rarely addressed – “the problem of perfectionism for women that sometimes prevents them from sailing on the river of life.” Read more.
Sweetness in the Belly World Premiere at Toronto Film Festival
We are so excited to announce that our feature film Sweetness in the Belly is having its World Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. Read more.
Ethiopia Creates
A51 conducted a diagnostic study of the creative sector for the Ethiopian Job Creations Committee (JCC) and facilitated a 3-day design lab workshop to craft policy recommendations that would help create new jobs in the sector. Ethiopian Creates is an awareness and educational campaign that grew out of this effort.
Tourism Ethiopia goes to Cannes….
Ethiopia to participate at the inaugural African Film Pavilion at Cannes Film Festival. Read more.
Ethiopian Director Yared Zeleke plots “Sunbirds”
Ethiopian director Yared Zeleke whose drama Lambpremiered Un Certain Regard in 2015, is back in Cannes with a second feature project, provisionally called Sunbirds. Read more.
Eyesuswork Zafu and Mehret Mandefro elected Chair and Vice Chair of Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund
Our founder was just elected Vice Chair of the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund. Read more.
Mehret Mandefro’s “Loving Generation” Up for Webby Award
Our leader is up for another media award. Read more.
First Look at “Sweetness in the Belly” Starring Dakota Fanning
London-based sales agency HanWay Films has released the first-look image of Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s “Sweetness in the Belly,” which Variety has exclusively. Read more.