DISCOP Zanzibar & ZIFF Unveil TV Series Festival

DISCOP Zanzibar and Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) are presenting the inaugural Zanzibar TV Series Festival.

The first edition of the Zanzibar TV Series Festival will be held from July 11 to 13. The event will highlight series from around the world. The festival will be open to the public. In addition, ZIFF has announced two new award categories for 2018—best TV series and best web series. During ZIFF this year, the category for best African TV series will be open to any African produced or co-produced broadcast within the last two years. Three episodes will need to be submitted for consideration via an online process.

Patrick Zuchowicki, general manager of Basic Lead, said, “With the FAANG’s (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) plans to spend up to $15 billion on film, television and online content in 2018 and with millennials raised on streaming, the time has come to celebrate entertainment content as a whole and bring to the attention of the Zanzibar public the world’s foremost creators of TV series, and provide the best ones with a well-deserved award.”

Festival Director Fabrizio Colombo commented, “ZIFF’s 20th marked a turning point in the history of our festival. With the big step this year of ZIFF’s partnership of DISCOP Zanzibar, we are ready and excited to welcome all the players in the business of film, television and content production. ZIFF is amongst one of the first festivals in Africa, if not the world, to recognize the importance and power of both TV and web content. These awards, along with related workshops and discussions, represent ZIFF’s commitment to growing the whole of the East African content industry.”