Report on the 1st Afrique Junior Festival

This first edition of the event offered spectators free viewing of a selection of six French and American films shown at the Institut Français and the theaters of the Majestic Cinema chain in Abidjan, as well as in outdoor screenings on an inflatable screen in the village of Boyo. Residents of this village located in the country's north near the Malian border gave the event an extremely warm welcome. In addition to the film festival held after sunset, a range of fun events were organized during the day, such as sack races, makeup stalls, magic tricks, soccer games, relay races, musical chairs, a bouncy castle, and a photo booth that allowed participants to take home a photo souvenir of the event—which, for many of the villagers, was the first photo they had ever had taken.

On the first evening, Big Bad Fox & Other Tales and The Incredibles 2 were screened, followed the next evening by Blue and The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir, which went ahead in spite of a huge storm that rolled in that night. The third evening featured screenings of Aya of Yop City, Ratatouille, and three short films made by local video artists with village residents. A band played music in between the screenings, with many spectators getting up to dance.

These screenings each attracted between 600 and 1,000 people, with, as planned, mostly children attending the event in Boyo, thus making this first festival a major popular success, also reflected in the high attendance at screenings held at the Institut Français in Abidjan (1,230 admissions for the five screenings) and at the Majestic Cinemas (1,075 admissions). This brings the total attendance to between 3,900 and 4,400 spectators.

Take a look at the photo portfolio and the short video shot in Boyo to get a taste of this successful event.

The organizers of the Afrique Junior Festival—UniFrance, The Walt Disney Company France & French-Speaking Africa and Les Villages Enchantés—would like to thank the partners of this first edition of the event: the Fondation ENGIE, the Institut Français in the Côte d’Ivoire, Majestic Cinemas, and the Cornélius Endowment Fund.