The Organizing Committee of the 28th Edition of FESPACO provided an update of the preparations 72 hours before official opening.
Everything is in order for FESPACO 2023 to open on Saturday 25 February 2023 in the presence of Head of State Ibrahim Traoré. The opening ceremony will be held at Palais des Sports de Ouaga 2000. Artist and choreographer Serge Aimé Coulibaly and his team are once again promising a beautifully crafted show for the opening.
Exhibition stands at Place des Nations and former Camp Fonctionnaire are ready and waiting for the start signal.
MICA (the African International Film and Audio-visual Market) with its base at the headquarters of FESPACO is also all set.
111 selected artists will perform on the various artistic sets.
160 of the 170 films in the official competition are already received.
FESPACO General Delegate Moussa Alex Sawadogo said everything is carefully ordered, projectionists have been retrained by professionals from Morocco.
More than 10 thousand festival-goers are expected with film programmers from Berlin and Cannes. Canal +, one of the major partners of FESPACO 2023, has invested more than CFA 100 million and will be able to broadcast selected films.
Security wise, the Commission in charge is in squeezed rows and with the challenging security context, the Organizing Committee urges festival-goers to strictly observe instructions by security men.
According to the Chair of the Organizing Committee Fidèle Tamini, Mali is the Guest of Honour for this edition for being the first to respond favourably to FESPACO’s request.