Best Screenplay Fair Award-posted 29/01/06

 THE Amakhosi Performing Arts Academy (APAA) Screenplay Fair ’06 Best Script Award has been pegged at Z$25 million for the winner and Z$10 million for the runner up, bringing the total prize money to Z$35 million.

A spokesperson for the fair, Amakhosi film and television department manager, Memory Kumbota, said the dates of the award have been moved to the 18^th of  February 2006 because of the Africa Cup of Nations that end on the 10^th of February 2006.

He said the writer of the best script will take the prize money and the sponsor, Jet Around Tours, a private company based in Victoria Falls will also underwrite the cost of producing the film.

Next year the sponsorship will be increased to $100 million.

“The challenge is to bring in other companies so that we make this bigger and it will in a way jump start the film industry in the region,” said Kumbota.

“In future we are planning to have two sections one for amateurs and the other for professional scriptwriters. We are aiming to build this festival so that in few years time, it becomes a continental screenplay fair,” said Kumbota.

The judges for the scripts are recognized professional actors.

“We have chosen to use actors, instead of other writers, because we feel scripts are best judged by the actors who work on them. It is also to avoid conflict of interest between screenplay writers.” said Kumbota.  

The screenplay fair opened on the 16^th of December 2005 at the Amakhosi Resturant (at Township Square Cultural Centre) and closed on the 21^st of January 2006. It opened with three scripts on show and closed with seven.

It is hoped that it will serve as the window that will open up to interested film artists and potential film funders and makers. It presents aspiring actors, actresses and film funders with the most realistic chance to break into the film industry.

APAA was launched at the beginning of the year to mark the decade anniversary and as a way of setting goals for the next 25 years. With that idea in mind, Amakhosi surveyed the present arts sector and realized that what is lacking is the culture of training in the arts industry.

The academy enrolls mainly individuals who are highly talented O Level graduates. It is aimed at producing entrepreneurs who will go on to start their own production houses and is also aimed at producing graduates who will run cultural enterprises.