The Namibia Film Commission (NFC) on Wednesday announced the winners of the TALA Namibia online film festival.

The seven-day online film festival was the first of its kind that featured diverse local film content by Namibians, for Namibians.

The TALA film festival afforded the creative sector an opportunity to showcase their content free of charge to a greater spectrum of viewers across the length and breadth of Namibia at a time when the sector is reeling in shock of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the category for Most Popular Film, Nicko Zamaleck won the prize for the My Namibia official music video, while Tobias Shinyema won the Lucky Audience prize.

TALA Namibia curation manager, Marinda Stein in a media statement said TALA Namibia is proud to have marked the end of the first-ever online festival, marked with great milestones of engaging over 10 000 Namibians through the streaming platform in a span of 11 days.

“Now that the TALA film festival is concluded, we are proud to announce our intent to continue TALA as an online streaming service to Namibian audiences and beyond, directing our focus specifically to seek for required investment to transition into a monetising platform,” she said.

Chairperson of the National Arts Council, Patrick Sam was quoted in the statement as saying: “The festival has ushered in a new dawn of hope in the creative industry, achieving goals of multiculturalism in storytelling and affording Namibians a platform to showcase their content to the continents.”

Over 200 films from various genres were submitted and represent a unique opportunity for multiple audiences to watch and enjoy the festival, he added.

The TALA Namibia online film festival is sponsored by the NFC and various key stakeholders.

Source: Namibia Press Agency