This year's festival kicked off on October 30 and continues until November 30. 2020 was the inaugural year of THE BIOSKOP Short Film Competition by the European Film Festival Zimbabwe and it was held under the theme 'Life as we DON’T know it!' The competition called upon Zimbabwean filmmakers to think outside the box and offer a fresh perspective on life amid COVID-19 and in the realm of limited resources. The films were judged based on content and creativity and their technical aspect, with the winners receiving cash prizes.
A total of five films have won the Bioskop Zimbabwe Short Film Competition 2020 out of 42 films submitted. The five films were judged by an esteemed panel of judges, with both a local and global view of the film industry. Here are this year's winners:
BEST SOUND EDITING: Petrichor by Liam Brickhill
Petrichor is an experimental short film that blurs the line between documentary, art-house, and digital poetry. The film combines unstaged vérité footage with field audio recordings, mbira, classical music, and a melancholic jazz sensibility to craft an emotional, rather than linear, narrative. It tells a story of love and loss, death and rebirth, memories and dreams. It is a visual love letter to Zimbabwe, and is intensely personal in its exploration of family and home, but is also regional in scope, featuring images from Kenya, Eswatini, and South Africa alongside those from Zimbabwe.
BEST DOCUMENTARY: Mass Drug Administration Documentary by Kudzai Tinago
Bilharzia and Intestinal worms have been prominent in Mt. Darwin and Shamva districts of Zimbabwe. The government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Health and Child Care in partnership with the World Health Organisation embarks on a 10-day Mass Drug Administration program assisting over 300,000 individuals with the treatment of these two diseases. The villagers are happy with this initiative and they look forward to more partnerships to ensure better health, for everyone, everywhere.
BEST DIASPORA: MUROYI NDIANI? (Who is the witch?) by Lawrie Zidyana
What does a family do when a child starts hearing voices and acting strange? Filmmaker Lawrie Zidyana’s documentary looks back at how his family dealt with a mystery that dominated his life growing up in Zimbabwe.
BEST NARRATIVE: 18 Months Later by Braydan Heart
After the COVID-19 vaccine goes horribly wrong, Zimbabwean teenager Anesu together with his younger sister Fikile, assemble a team of teenagers with the necessary skills and resources to try to survive what might be the end of the world as they know it.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Love in Lockdown by Prosper Kunyetu
A short story about two love birds who are stuck in the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown and are not able to see each other.