Flanked by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, Paolo Moretti, Claudine Nougaret and Vladimir Perišić, the Belgian actress Lubna Azabal will award the Short Film Palme d’or and the 3 La Cinef prizes, the Festival de Cannes’ selection dedicated to student films.

The Jury will discover the 11 films in the Short Film Competition and the 18 films in La Cinef selection unveiled today.

LUBNA AZABAL – President Actress Belgium © Dominique Charriau / Getty Images After attending the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Lubna Azabal began her acting career in theater. In 1997, she got her first role in front of the camera in Vincent Lannoo’s short film J’adore le cinéma (I Love the Movies). She went on to work with directors such as Michel Deville, Ridley Scott, André Téchiné, Nadir Moknèche and Denis Villeneuve. She was noticed for her performance in Tony Gatlif’s Exils, which won Best Director Award at the Festival de Cannes in 2004. In 2018, she returned to Cannes with director Meryem Benm’Barek’s Sofia, which won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Screenplay. In 2019, she presented Adam by Maryam Touzani, with whom she was back in Cannes in 2022 for The Blue Caftan, which earned her a third Magritte Award for Best Actress in 2024.

MARIE-CASTILLE MENTION-SCHAAR Director, screenwriter, producer France © Guy Ferrandis Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar began her career in the U.S. as deputy international editor at The Hollywood Reporter, then moved to Columbia Pictures to manage remake projects. Returning to France in 1994, she produced some twenty films through her production companies Vendredi and Willow. After co-writing La Première Etoile, she wrote and directed her first film Ma première fois (2011), followed by Bowling (2012) and Once in a life time(2014). In 2015, Heaven Will Wait was selected at numerous festivals, and earned Noémie Merlant a nomination for the César for Best Emerging Actress. After All About Mothers (2017), her sixth film, A Good Man is part of the Official Selection 2020 of the Festival de Cannes. Her seventh film, Divertimento, was released in January 2023. She is the founder of the Cercle Féminin du Cinéma Français and Officier des Arts et des Lettres.

PAOLO MORETTI Film programmer Italy © Angèle Marignac-Serra ECAL   Currently director of the cinema department at the École cantonale d’art de Lausanne (ECAL), director of the Grütli Cinemas in Geneva and cinema curator at the Fondazione Prada in Milan, Paolo Moretti was general delegate of the Directors’ Fortnight, the parallel selection of the Festival de Cannes, from 2018 to 2022. He worked for numerous film festivals and institutions in Europe, including the Centre Pompidou and Cinéma du Réel in Paris, the Filmoteca Española in Madrid, the Leeds International Film Festival and the Portuguese Cinematheque in Lisbon. From 2008 to 2011 he was programming advisor and deputy director of the Venice Film Festival. Between 2014 and 2019 he directed the La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival and was a member of the selection committees of the FIDMarseille and Visions du Réel festivals.

CLAUDINE NOUGARET Producer, director France © Raymond Depardon   Claudine Nougaret is a producer and director. She started out in the film industry as a sound engineer in 1984 on Éric Rohmer’s The Green Ray. In 1992, together with Raymond Depardon, she founded Palmeraie et Désert to produce quality documentary films including Urgences, Caught in the Acts, Africa: How Are You with Pain?, The 10th Judicial Court: Judicial Hearings, Modern Life, Journal de France, France, 12 Days (presented in 2017 at the Festival de Cannes in Official Selection – Out of Competition). In 2021, she created the CST Award for best young female film technician at the Festival de Cannes, and in 2022 produced the film Feminist Riposte by Marie Perennès and Simon Depardon, a documentary about feminist collectives across France (Festival de Cannes 2022, Official Selection).

VLADIMIR PERIŠIĆ Director, screenwriter Serbia © Philippe Lebruman   Graduated from the Fémis film school, Vladimir Perišić presented his graduation film, the short Dremano oko, in the Cinéfondation selection at the Festival de Cannes 2003. In 2009, he directed his first feature film Ordinary People, an intense war film he co-wrote with Alice Winocour, in competition for the Caméra d’Or at the Festival de Cannes 2009. He returned in 2014 with Bridges of Sarajevo, screened in Special Screenings, a collective work by thirteen renowned European filmmakers on the history of the Bosnian capital, for which he directed Our Shadow Will. His latest film, Lost Country (2023), is a critically acclaimed intimate political chronicle. In parallel, he has been one of the programmers of the Belgrade Auteur Film Festival since 2011.

Ghana’s singing Prophet, Joseph Atarah is set to rock the people of Adenta on May 19 with Atarah Praise. (more…)

Budding Ghanaian musician Agyeiwaa Stella Ofosu, affectionately called Mysstel in the music circles, has released the much-awaited video for her song Paradise.

“Paradise” written and produced by multiple award-winning Ghanaian musician and producer Kuami Eugene of Rock Star Made It fame has enjoyed massive rotation and airplay since its release recently.

The video directed and shot by Cassidy is a reliving of the lyrics of the song which urges ladies to give their male partners the treatment of a lifetime.

“Paradise” released under Oracle Entertainment, is a tale of two lovers who are geared for the rollercoaster journey into the future regardless of the challenges.

According to Mysstell, love is not one-sided, and it is about time ladies make their male partners feel special, adding that “this means going all out for him like he will do for you regardless.”

“You need to let them know you love them, they deserve to be taken to special places, let them see the best part of you, take them to your paradise,” she said.

Mysstel is optimistic she has something unique which will help her break into the Ghana music industry and later take the world by storm.

Watch the video below

Mysstel – Paradise (Official Video) finally out

By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme

May Day, which is also known as International Workers’ Day, is a public holiday celebrated on 1^st May every year. It is a holiday that is recognized in many countries around the world to celebrate the achievements and contributions of workers around the world.

As part of activities to mark this year’s edition of May Day, the Ghana Export – Import Bank (GEXIM) will be hosting a special edition of its popular Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Fair, Tuesday Market, on Tuesday 30^th April 2024.

Dubbed as “Workers’ Mart”, the fair is scheduled to take place at the forecourt of the Africa Trade House (next to British Council in Accra) from 8AM to 8PM.  It will be a platform to showcase a wide variety of top quality Made-In-Ghana products to be sold at unbeatable prices.

According to the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of GEXIM, responsible for Banking, Ms. Rosemary Beryl Archer, the Made-In-Ghana products to be displayed are very unique, and authentic, ranging from food and ingredients, beverages, skin and beauty care products, textiles, apparel, garments, leather footwear to slippers and many others.

 She added that “we at GEXIM are happy to leverage the day to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our employees and Ghanaian employees in all industries. Also, it has become more imperative in recent times to recognize the importance of labour rights and fair working conditions. The significance of Workers Day goes beyond the commemoration of past struggles, it is an opportunity to reflect on the achievements of the labour movement and to look towards the future to ensure that workers’ rights are protected and that fair and just working conditions are upheld”.

Ms. Archer further stated that the Bank has over the years introduced initiatives to create a diverse and inclusive workplace to ensure that all workers are treated fairly and have access to equal opportunities.

She encouraged members of the general public to make it a point to join in the celebration by attending “Workers’ Mart on Tuesday 30^th April 2024 at the forecourt of the Africa Trade House (next to British Council in Accra) from 8AM to 8PM which will be climaxed with a “Worker’s Jam”.  

Sony Pictures Television has announced plans to adapt Ghanaian author Yaa Gyasi’s novel “Transcendent Kingdom,” with development led by Yvonne Orji. (more…)