The Black Star International Film Festival has announced the 2019 official selection for the Black International Film Festival.

A statement to that effect said: “We take this opportunity to thank all filmmakers who submitted to the festival and to congratulate those who made the difficult cut this year, many great films were submitted from all over the world, however, as expected only a few could be selected for the festival, we also take the opportunity to thank our hard-working jury for successfully completing this tedious process.

“In total, 27 films were selected into competition in seven categories namely; Documentary, Short Films, Women in Film, Student Film, Africa Rising and Animation. Two more films were selected into a non-competitive category for a special screening.

All films will be premiering for the first time in Ghana during the festival.

The opening films are ‘Nirvana’ by William Kojo Agbeti (Ghana) and ‘Life In My Shoe’ by Wimana Beatrice (Uganda) and closing films are The Game Changers, the highly anticipated movie from producer Louie Psihoyos (and Executive Producers including James Cameroon, Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger).

The Black Star International Film Festival (BSIFF) 2019 is scheduled to take off from 20-26 August 2019.

This year, the festival runs as an official Year of Return 2019 event and offers a wide range of activities including workshops, panel sessions, the African film market, a music concert, awards night and daily film screenings all happening in the city of Accra.