She specializes in making films that give voice to the marginalized in the country. Adanech's own story reads much like her films: born to a poor family and growing up in the streets of Mercato, she left school at 16 and was destined to be a kolo an Ethiopian form of popcorn seller, when she was recruited to take part in GEM TV, one of the country's first community film schools.
She will be pitching a story on female genital mutilation set in Kenya, about at the extraordinary life of the Maasai woman Hellen Nkuraiya, exploring together how attitudes are changing within the Maasai culture. Daniel Debebe is a young experimental award-winning filmmaker with a strong humanitarian engagement. He will be pitching a story about a young Ethiopian man who is forced to come back to his home country after so long.
He steps out in the streets of Addis Ababa for the first time in decades with only a backpack and a few hundred dollars in his pocket. He does not have the strength to call his parents nor the will to face his past. It tells the story of a young Addis Ababa taxi driver who gets caught up in the dark side of love, causing his taxi to be stolen.
He finds himself stuck in a relationship with a prostitute, making him confront his past and discover what is the ultimate price of love. Hiwot Admasu, who learned the art of storytelling from her grandmother's traditional stories, often takes an experimental approach to her filmmaking. She prefers directing her own scripts and will be pitching a story about a thirteen-year old girl, Selam, discovering her sexuality against the backdrop of a very conservative society.
Yamrot Nigussie , whose work stretches from directing documentary and television dramas to acting, is presenting a docudrama story about the many challenges facing a year-old Ethiopian house-maid returning from a harsh working environment in Saudi Arabia, and how she confronts them. The filmmakers travel to Cannes and are mentored as they meet a range of influential distributors, sales agents, producers, directors and international film commissioners at the international festival.
