Tourism Minister opens NDIVA Women’s Film Festival

The Minister for Tourism Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, was the special guest at the NDIVA Women’s Film Festival Film Opening Ceremony held at Alliance Francais on October, 30, 2019 in Accra.

The opening ceremony marked the start of the four day film festival annually organised by the Alliance Francais Cultural Events as part of their promotion of Women in Film and Arts.

The NDIVA Women’s Film Festival (NWFF), is a film festival that seeks to bring women film-makers and all women in the film production chain together in a space where they can network, collaborate, exhibit their work and celebrate each other.

Activities slated for the festival this year include a 5 day workshop in Screen writing and Direct-ing for women screen writers and film directors, 3 days of film screenings of selected films large-ly centred around the women and how they experience the world, Panel Discussions and an Awards Ceremony.

The ceremony, being the third edition since its maiden launch is expected to run from 30th Octo-ber to 2nd November this year, 2019, with its main focus on women and the film industry.

The Minister, speaking at the opening ceremony, encouraged the youth especially women to take greater interest in the film industry as well as strive to make meaningful careers in film-making in order to relieve the older generation and continue their good works in the industry as a whole. She then expressed gratitude to Alliance Francais and the French embassy for their con-tinued co-operation on promotion of women’s participation in Film.

Barbara Oteng-Gyasi indicated at the opening ceremony that, “The film industry has vast poten-tial and great opportunities to build international careers.”

She further congratulated the host, Alliance Francais for their initiative of organising the festival. She also expressed goodwill towards the festival, asking that more women seek careers in film to open up a new frontier for employment as the unemployment rate was still a major issue within the country.

According to the Minister, the Government is facilitating the establishment of National Film Au-thority and the construction of an ultra-modern Film Production Studio to attract the international film community to Ghana. The Government is therefore poised to ensuring the viability of the Creative Arts Sector

As part of her closing remarks, the Minister invited all present and the general pub-lic to experience the films made by other women that were to be screened and admonished that they draw inspiration and encouragement to do more and better for the Film and Arts Industry in Ghana.