The Cordoba African Film Festival – FCAT (www.fcat.es) is an independent and competitive film festival. The 10th edition will take place in Cordoba from October 12th to 19th, 2013, organized by the registered non‐profit organization Al Tarab, with its mission being to promote and spread African cinema in Spain and Spanish‐speaking Latin America, and to contribute to the development of film industries in African countries.

The festival has announced a call for entries for this year’s event, and is looking for works in the following categories: feature films, documentary films, short films (fiction and documentary), Diaspora films (films by filmmakers of African descent not living in continental Africa, but whose films have some connection to Africa), animation (shorts and features), and musicals and/or dance films.

The 9th edition last year was the first year that the festival moved from its Tarifa location, to Cordoba, located in Andalusia, Spain, where it housed 8 days of cinema from 28 African and Middle East countries.

94 films screened during the Festival, last year, together with seminars and forums between African and European film professionals and the audience, and a special focus on children and college students.

Among others, it is supported by Cordoba City Council, the Andalusia regional Government and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

Last year’s lineup saw new films from South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania, to name a few, as well as African films, about Africans, shot in European countries.

There is a competition section to the festival, with 3 different award categories: The African Dream award (for feature films), On the Other Side of the Strait (documentary films), and Africa in Short (short films). Through a juried selection process, an award will be given to each section’s best film during the awards ceremony, when the winning films will be screened.

The festival will also feature 7 non-competitive sections:

– Afroscope – a panoramic showcase of African and international film productions centered on the many realities of contemporary Africa;

– Panarabica – a selection of films from the 8th Dubai International Film Festival program;

– Animafrica – a selection of the latest animated films produced in the continent;

– Africa in Rhythm – films depicting dance and music as they are performed in the continent;

– Algeria, 50 Years of History and Cinema – a special on films from the country;

– Cinema and City – focus on films reflecting on the continent’s urbanization;

– Abderrahmane Sissako’s Little Film Library – a section including 5 significant films selected by the award-winner Mauritanian filmmaker.

The festival was created in 2003 as a showcase event without any competitive sections, taking place in the southernmost town of Europe: Tarifa. However, over the past eight years, it has consolidated to become one of the main European references for African cinema, and, as it describes itself, the most important in Spain.

To submit your film, click HERE for the application form. The deadline for entry is May 15.