1. Festival
The festival component of Lola Kenya Screen entails film exhibition, film competition, media literacy, story-telling, theatre, music, dance, art exhibition and talent exposition.
The Lola Kenya Screen festival comprises several film exhibition sections. The main film prizes are the Golden Mboni Award for the best children’s film and the 14-Plus Award for the best youth film. Other prizes include the Most Creative Project, Children’s Rights, Best Animation, Best Documentary, Best Fiction, Best Experimental Film, Best Student Film, Best Kenyan Film, and Best Eastern Africa Film.
The festival exhibits the best possible films, both local and international, for children, youth and family. It showcases films in all kinds of formats, categories and genres: short films; long films; children’s and youth films; animation; African films; experimental films; creatively packaged music videos; television series and programmes; feature films; documentary films; public service announcements and commercials; student films; and computer games.
By the end of 2011, Lola Kenya Screen had showcased 1950 films from 102 countries.
2. Skill-Development
Lola Kenya Screen is the platform on which children and youth explore and discover their talent. This is aimed at equipping the generation of today and tomorrow with creative and cultural entrepreneurship skills to understand, appreciate, and create and consume high quality media content.
- Creative Journalism is aimed at uplifting the standards of creative and cultural journalism in eastern Africa
- Film Production equips children and youth with the skills of filmmaking
- Programme Organisation & Presentation empowers children and youth with the skills to organise and present events
- Film Criticism inculcates in participants the skills with which to critically appreciate and appraise creativity in general and film in particular
- Media Literacy equips participants with the skills to understand the opportunities and dangers inherent in modern mass media and how to mitigate against the short comings through informed participation
3. Market
Lola Kenya Screen offers the ideal forum for networking, publicity and marketing of values, products and services targeting children, youth and family. It is also the entry point for international productions into eastern Africa.
4. Film Forum
Lola Kenya Screen—with the support of ComMattersKenya/ArtMatters.Info in collaboration with Goethe-Institut in Kenya—runs this monthly film forum for audiovisual media players—filmmakers, film critics, film writers, students, scholars, policy-makers within the governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations, associations, funders, actors and actresses, social awareness groups, cultural agencies and other players with a stake in the film sector—in Nairobi.
The objective of the Film Forum is to explore ways of integrating film production with other socio-cultural and economic sectors in order to come up with a vibrant film industry. This is often one of the first places where new films can be seen and young talent spotted. Between December 2005 and December 2011, more than 100 films had been shown, discussed and promoted.
5. Mobile Cinema
Subject to availability of resources, Lola Kenya Screen conducts mobile cinema to communities in and around Nairobi every fortnight.
6. School Outreach
Lola Kenya Screen runs a weekly school outreach programme for schools in and around Nairobi every week.