‘Everything Happens for a Reason’ tops Afrinolly Shortfilm Competition

Directed by Florian Schott, ‘Everything Happens for a Reason’ received the most votes in the Afrinolly Shortfilm Competition.

The short film, which was also self-financed by the German/Namibian film-maker impressed judges to come out tops in the online competition which features films from all over Africa.

The top prize for this competition is a whopping US$25 000 (N$250 000) and the prize giving ceremony will be held next month in Lagos, Nigeria.

The Afrinolly Competition was conceived in 2011 for Africans all over the world to showcase their films and has over three million downloads so far. The judging panel for the competition was comprised of international film/documentary experts and influencers from various African countries and the United States and the films submitted were juried by this illustrious panel led by the award-winning filmmaker and writer Femi Odugbemi.

‘Everything Happens for a Reason’ features Namibian actors Chops Tshoopara, Muhindua Kaura, Joel Haikali, Lize Ehlers, David Ndjavera, Lynn Strydom and has an award winning team behind the camera as well – Co-Producer Sophie Mukenge Kabongo won the Namibian film award for ‘Try’ in 2012, Editor Haiko Boldt won the award for ‘Dead River’ in the same year.

Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, an overjoyed Schott expressed pride and joy at the recognition his film has received.

“It feels great actually. This is a huge honour, not only for myself but for Namibian films in general. It really shows how all the marketing we have been doing on most social media platforms has helped a lot,” he said.

‘Everything Happens For a Reason’ is one of the few Namibian films that were released last year. Schott attributes this to the lack of financing opportunities and a lack of proper distribution channels available for Namibian film-makers.

“In my opinion, the year before last year (2012) was a very successful one for film-makers as a lot of money came in from the Namibian Film Commission, he said.

“Despite these challenges though, most film-makers were hard at work last year working on new projects,” he adds.

Apart from the challenges he mentions, Schott agrees that most Namibians don’t get a chance to view Namibian productions. This, he says, is being addressed by a number of artists and film-makers who are at the beginning stages of finding ways in which to take these productions to the masses.

“We have been having discussions on taking these local films to people in informal settlements or villages who would otherwise not have a chance to view them. We could have screenings on projectors.”

For now though, Schott’s is hard at work with his next project ‘Katutura’, the long awaited musical.