Windrush Caribbean Film Festival Appoints Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe MBE and Ansel Wong CBE to its team
February 22, 2023 | By Sasha Stoltz |
The Windrush Caribbean Film Festival is proud to announce that two cultural icons are joining its team as it gears up to mark the 75th Anniversary of Windrush in June.
Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe MBE is joining the Windrush Caribbean Film Festival (WCFF) as Artistic Director. Emmanuel is well known in the film and wider cultural communities as the Founder of British Urban Film Festival (BUFF) which launched in 2005 as the only showcase for urban independent cinema in the UK. In 2018, Emmanuel co-founded BUFF Originals (now BUFF Studios), the production and distribution arm of BUFF, whose debut feature NO SHADE won its director, Clare Anyiam-Osigwe (Emmanuel’s wife) an African Movie Academy award. Last November, BUFF Studios debuted Emmanuel’s documentary film ABSOLUTELY MARVELLOUS. In October 2020 BUFF was granted BAFTA qualifying status for British Short Films.
Emmanuel was awarded an MBE for services to the Black and Minority Ethnic Film Industry, following a 20-year career in media, journalism, and film.
On this announcement, Emmanuel said, “I am excited to be working with the Windrush Caribbean Film Festival at such a pivotal moment in British history. The 75th anniversary of Windrush in June will be a once in a generation moment. Therefore, the opportunity lies in wait for the festival to become front and centre of all that is great and good in showcasing Caribbean film and cinema in 2023 and beyond. It’s an opportunity that I am honoured to be part of.”
Ansel Wong CBE has been appointed a Director of Windrush Caribbean Film Festival CIC, the community interest company that has brought the Festival to the United Kingdom since 2020.
Born in Trinidad and UK based since the 1960s, Ansel is a cultural historian, community leader, political activist and leader of several public and charitable organizations who uses art to affect
social change and racial justice. He has served on the Windrush Commemoration Committee, was the former Chair of the Notting Hill Carnival Trust and co-founder of Elimu Mas Band. He led a group of staff to get October designated as Black History Month.
Ansel led the creation of much content for WCFF’s 2021 programme which focused on The Art of Carnival.
On his appointment, Mr. Wong said, “I am honoured and delighted to be joining WCFF as I have engaged with the festival over the past two years and bear witness to the drive for excellence and quality that underpins their programming. I look forward to making a contribution to elevate the creativity of the Caribbean and its diaspora”.
Frances-Anne Solomon, award-winning filmmaker, and co-founder of WCFF, said, “We are honoured to have these two consequential figures for the cultural landscape of Britain and its Black communities.
SOURCE Sasha Stoltz Publicity
