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 Advertisement 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 Advertisement © 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   Advertisement 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   Advertisement 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   Advertisement 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.

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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”.  

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On Wednesday, 27th March 2024, the state council headed by Togbe Afede XIV received the delegation of The New Force movement on the Volta region phase of their nationwide listening tour which was welcomed with rousing hospitality by large crowds of various gatherings.                                        

Expressing immense gratitude for the warm reception he and his team had been given, the leader of The New Force emphasized that the resources of the Volta region have over the years been very severely underutilized. Highlighting this fact in his official address to the chiefs and elders, Nana Kwame Bediako stressed that the Volta region is central to job creation in the nation of Ghana, and therefore a top priority in his vision for national development and industrialization, one which by all means has to be made a reality so as to secure national industrialization and economic development goals.

In the Zongo Community in Volta Region, on Wednesday, 27th March 2024, Nana Kwame Bediako paid a visit to the Islamic Community as part of a regional listening tour in the holy month of Ramadan in an effort to solidarise with them in the performance of their annual religious duties. At the gathering, the leader of The New Force movement highlighted the fact that all over the country, there are important Zongo populations and that each one of them is to be meaningfully considered as a pillar in the stability and development of the country.

Nana Kwame Bediako on Wednesday, 27th March 2024 made a stop at the Ho Technical University. In his address to students and stakeholders in the education sector, he underlined the fact that the current remuneration for teachers is not at all satisfactory and that it needs to be properly revised. Given the emphasis on industrialization in his vision, the leader of The New Force movement assured his audiences that on his watch priorities for education in the entire country will be set and as well a focus on skills training and skills development for the youth.

On Thursday, 28th March 2024, the staff and patients of the St. Joseph Hospital in Effiduase Koforidua saw an early Easter surprise this year when they were visited by Nana Kwame Bediako, leader of The New Force movement on a stop during his 16 regional listening tour. Joined by his wife Mrs. Ruby Bediako and welcomed by scores of excited youth and other community members in white campaign T-shirts, the leader of The New Force movement celebrated the staff of the hospital. Making a donation of some toiletries, water, baby clothing and food items to the maternity ward of the hospital, the leader of The New Force was met with joy by mothers and health workers at the ward.

In a brief address after a tour of the hospital facilities together with the hospital administration officers, the leader of The New Force movement said “… the women of this country are doing so well. I was in Ho Market yesterday and saw a lot of developments by women. We are in the hospital today and again I am seeing the work of women. The future of this country will be mostly based on what women are bringing. I want to encourage all of you to keep doing what you are doing.”

Elated by the presence of the leader of The New Force, several of the new mothers happily announced to onlookers that their babies had been held by the “future president of Ghana”.

At the lab facilities of the hospital, Nana Kwame Bediako promised to help in extending development to their grounds and hospital equipment and resources in general. On behalf of both patients and staff, Dr. Collins Osei Kissi, Medical Director of the St. Joseph Hospital, expressed gratitude for the visit and also the various kind gestures of The New Force movement.

  Video: https://youtu.be/vq0930L6CbQ?si=VeKWRTlfzbFsrWag