The Embassy of Spain has announced its support towards the this year’s edition of International Images Film Festival 2022, with the participation of film director Silvia Venegas. The festival in its 20th year will be running from the 24th to the 27th of November 2022 in Harare.

Founded in 2002 and supported by the Institute of Creative Arts for Progress in Africa (ICAPA) Trust, IIFF is an annual festival held in Harare that is a platform for films that portray women in at least one major role, thus providing role modelling for African women to observe other women in film being active, displaying agency and impacting positively on their own lives and communities. 

Silvia Venegas is a member of the European Film Academy and the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences. Her filmography focuses on documentaries on social issues. She holds Bachelor Degrees in History and Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Communication. She has been selected to participate in the Berlinale Talents Campus of the Berlinale and in the IDFAcademy of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam. In 2018, Silvia Venegas received the Liberpress Cine Award for her commitment to cinema and human rights. 

In 2010, Silvia created the production company Making DOC with director Juan Antonio Moreno.  Since then, their productions have participated in more than 500 festivals around the world and have received more than 100 awards, including two Goya Awards for Best Documentary Short Film for Walls and Our Life as Refugee Children in Europe. The European Film Academy selected Boxing for Freedom and Welcome to Spain for the European Film Awards for Best Documentary. In addition, Our Life as Refugee Children in Europe was candidate for the Oscar Award. 

Within the framework of IIFF 2022, Silvia Venegas will give a Masterclass that will shed light on the crucial moment in which women find themselves. Now, they become protagonists, narrators and creators of their own stories. For this, she will talk about her experience directing and producing documentaries such as Boxing for Freedom, Our Life as Refugee Children in Europe or Heiresses where women are the ones who tell their own stories. Film professionals can register for this masterclass until 15 November.

Silvia Venegas’s film Boxing for Freedom will be screened three times in Harare during IIFF 2022:

Thursday 24 November, 14:00hrs, Mungate Hall in Domboshava

Friday 25 November, 16:30hrs, Afrotopia, corner Samora Machel Ave. and Park Street

Sunday 27 November, 14:00hrs at Afrotopia. Followed by a question and answer session