EAC opens portal for short film competition

The East African Community (EAC) has opened the portal for submission of the inaugural Short Film Competition for young citizens in the region.

At the same time the organisers of the competition have extended the deadline for submissions to April 30 as a result of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in some the participating countries.

INSPIRE CITIZENS

The maiden EAC Short Film Competition, is the latest efforts to inspire and capture views, and desires of young citizens in East Africa. It was launched in January as part of the new drive to accelerate citizens’ engagement this year. 

Announcing the opening of the web portal for submitting the short films, the EAC Secretary General, Ambassador Libérat Mfumukeko said the contest, the first of its kind by the regional body, is targeting over 10 million citizens using new innovative tools as part of a new campaign dubbed “The EAC I Deserve”, a citizens’ engagement campaign.

“The EAC Short Film Competition will involve young people from all our six partner states and a total of 33 youthful winners will share Sh2.6 million as prize money,” said Mr Mfumukeko.

He further clarified that short films in French language will be accepted but must have English subtitles and must stick to April 30 deadline to allow for more young people to collaborate using online tools.

CREATIVITY

“The short films will be judged based on creativity, originality, popularity, entertainment value and advancement of the integration agenda” added Mr Mfumukeko.

He announced that the competition creates a new opportunity for the regional to hear stories directly from the citizens on what they think the region has and has and what it has achieved so far.

 “The competition also aims at unveiling the impact the region has made to the world and the future of EAC and how they want to live in it in future,” said the ambassador.

He noted that most of the EAC youth in the region are Information and Communication Technology savvy and were the brains behind the competition.

“The youth have increased usage of social media communication which now commands close to 30 million active social media users monthly, with an average growth of 15 per cent annually and has become the main source of accessing news for East African citizens,” said Mr Mfumukeko

“Interested youth should upload their submissions on their personal or friends Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram or TikTok accounts, include the campaign hashtag #TheEACiDeserve in their postings on digital channels and later upload the films through www.theeacideserve.com.”

ANIMATION

 Youth aged between 18 to 35 years are encouraged to participate in the competition and may use any genre to produce the video or animation while the length should be between 30 to 59 seconds.

The year-long project is supported by the German Government through German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and aims at highlighting the regional achievements and challenges in the past 20 years under one theme: One People, One Destiny.

“The campaign encourages all stakeholders to work together to build an economically secure and prosperous future as united citizens,” he added.

The vibrant youth in Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali and Bujumbura took part in the awareness campaign as part of the mobilisation efforts to encourage citizens to take the chance to inspire the change they want to see in the region.