Celebrating water and dreams at the 10th Zanzibar Film Festival

Running under theme 'Celebration of Waters & Dreams', this year's expo aims to reflect on the rituals of celebration recognising the many ways in which all cultures value water and creativity symbolised in the nature of dreams.

The festival encompasses all art forms, from literature, visual and performance arts, to music, exhibitions, and of course, film. Contributing to the attraction for the thousands of art lovers who attend the festival are artists' panels, culinary arts events, A-List tributes and other special events.

With the marking of its tenth anniversary, organisers have put together a retrospective view of the last nine events, offering delegates 'the best of the best' with the promise that this year will be 'bigger and better'. Four world premieres have been confirmed, along with award-winning films from other top festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, London and Sundance.

ZIFF, in collaboration with one of its sponsors UNESCO, is also taking the opportunity to commemorate the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slave Trade, and will screen 12 feature length and short films on the matter.

The festival will feature four juries this year; the ZIFF, SIGNIS and FIPRESCI jury (as last year), with the new addition being the UNESCO-ZIFF jury. This is made up of 5 members, nominated by UNESCO, ZIFF and the British Council, who will decide the winner of the new award called 'The Breaking the Chains Award for the Best Film on the Theme of Slavery and its Legacy'.

Other festival highlights include the Filmmakers Forum, Critics workshop and the traditional Conference.

At the Forum, ZIFF will be under the spotlight as the topic of discussion will be its support and development of film production in Zanzibar.

The Critics 'three tier' workshop includes writing film analyses, a program of writing for a ZIFF daily paper on the festival, to be concluded by a Meet the Jury workshop.

The Conference will focus on ‘Celebrating Memories & Visual Cultures' - a reflection of representation through visual cultures. The best papers presented will be published in the ZIFF Journal.

The 2007 Festival is sponsored by Africalia, Air Tanzania, British Council, Clear Channel, Coca Cola Kwanza Ltd, Ford Foundation, Hivos, Holiday Inn, Ultimate Security, UNESCO, UNICEF, Vodacom, Zamani Zanzibar Kempinski, and ZG Design.

For more information, visit: http://www.ziff.or.tz/