Clap Ivoire - Festival du Cinema Ouest-Africain

Overview

Clap Ivoire is Ivory Coast's longest-running film festival and the primary competitive platform for short films by young filmmakers from the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) region. The 25th edition took place November 24 to 28, 2025, at the Cinéma Majestic, Sofitel Hôtel Ivoire, in Abidjan-Cocody. The festival is organized by the Office national du cinema de Cote d'Ivoire (ONAC-CI), the government film office, with support from the Ministry of Culture and Francophonie.

The 25th edition featured 13 films in competition - 7 documentaries and 6 fictions - along with 14 candidates participating in a pitch competition. Activities included training workshops, round tables, screenings, and project presentation sessions. The director general of Cote d'Ivoire Cinema, Johnson Lison Fall Diomande, confirmed the government's continued support for the festival as a platform for discovering and training new filmmakers across the sub-region.

Clap Ivoire operates a two-phase competition structure. The first phase is a national selection held in each of the eight UEMOA member states (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo), where each country selects two representatives in fiction and documentary categories. The second phase is the international competition in Abidjan, where the 16 finalists are judged by a jury selected by the festival commissioner.

For West African filmmakers, Clap Ivoire is one of the few festival platforms specifically dedicated to short-form cinema from the Francophone West African region. It sits alongside FESPACO in Burkina Faso as a major regional festival, though Clap Ivoire's focus on short films and young filmmakers differentiates it from FESPACO's feature film focus.

Submission Details

Clap Ivoire does not use FilmFreeway or an online submission portal. The festival operates through national selection committees in each UEMOA member state.

Filmmakers from UEMOA member states should contact their national film office or ONAC-CI directly for submission guidelines and national selection dates. The national selection phase typically occurs in the months preceding the international final in Abidjan.

Eligibility and Competition Structure

Clap Ivoire is restricted to young filmmakers from the eight UEMOA member states. The competition accepts short films in fiction and documentary categories. Each member state runs a national selection process to identify its two representatives - one in fiction and one in documentary. The 16 finalists then compete in the international phase in Abidjan.

The festival also includes a pitch competition where selected candidates present film projects to a jury of industry professionals. The 25th edition featured 14 pitch contestants. This pitch component provides a development opportunity beyond the screening competition, allowing filmmakers to receive feedback on projects in progress.

In addition to the competition, the festival programs training workshops, round tables on industry topics, and networking sessions connecting filmmakers from across the UEMOA region with industry professionals and government cultural officials.

What Filmmakers Should Know

Clap Ivoire's restriction to UEMOA member states means filmmakers from non-UEMOA African countries (such as Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, or Congo) are not eligible for the competition. Filmmakers from these countries should consider FESPACO (Burkina Faso), which has broader pan-African eligibility, or the Africa Movie Academy Awards (Nigeria).

For eligible filmmakers, the two-phase structure means that selection at the national level is the first hurdle. Each UEMOA country has its own selection process, typically organized through the national film office or cultural ministry. Filmmakers should contact their national film office well in advance of the international festival dates to learn about national selection timelines.

The festival's focus on short films makes it accessible for emerging filmmakers who may not yet have feature-length projects. The pitch competition offers an additional entry point for filmmakers with projects in development. The training workshops and round tables provide professional development opportunities that are particularly valuable for filmmakers working outside major African film production centers.

The festival's venue at the Cinéma Majestic in the Sofitel Hôtel Ivoire complex places it in one of Abidjan's most upscale districts (Cocody). The venue provides modern projection facilities, though the festival's scale is modest compared to FESPACO or major European festivals. Filmmakers attending should expect a regional, Francophone industry audience rather than an international market crowd.

Ivory Coast's film industry is growing but remains smaller than those of Nigeria, South Africa, or Egypt. The government's support through ONAC-CI and Cote d'Ivoire Cinema indicates institutional commitment to developing the sector. Clap Ivoire functions as both a competitive platform and an industry development tool, with the training workshops and pitch sessions serving as capacity-building mechanisms for the regional film ecosystem.

Major Awards

• Grand Prix UEMOA Kodjo Eboucle - top prize awarded to the best film in the international competition
• Best Fiction - award for the top fiction short film
• Best Documentary - award for the top documentary short film
• Pitch Competition Prize - award for the best project pitch among the 14 candidates

The jury is selected by the festival commissioner and consists of film industry professionals from the UEMOA region and beyond.

Other Ivorian Film Festivals

Clap Ivoire is the oldest and most established film festival in Ivory Coast, but several newer festivals have emerged:

• FENECI (Festival national des ecoles pour le cinema ivoirien) - first edition held June 12-13, 2025, at Espace Yelam's in Treichville, Abidjan. Dedicated to student films from Ivorian film schools. Created by screenwriter-director Serge Diby of INSAAC. The first edition received 40 submissions, selected 8 short films for competition, with a jury headed by director Luc Gnepa
• Abidjan Cine Scratch - women-focused film and visual arts festival, 5th edition scheduled for May 30, 2026, at Terrain d'Anono, Cocody. Organized by Fondation Coeur de Reine and Precis'K Label. The 2025 edition trained 800+ women in film, photography, AI, and cultural entrepreneurship
• FECIPA (Festival cinema plein air d'Abidjan) - outdoor cinema festival, 2nd edition held December 5-8, 2024, at Abobo-Doume in Abidjan. Focused on environmental and circular economy themes
• FILM d'Abidjan (Festival International des Langues Maternelles) - first edition February 21 to May 21, 2025. Dedicated to promoting local languages through cinema, organized by actor-director Guy Kalou with support from UNESCO-Abidjan and the Ministry of Culture

Festival History

Clap Ivoire was created in 1995 by Honore N'Zue as part of the centenary celebration of cinema in Cote d'Ivoire. The festival was initially organized by the Union des cine clubs de Cote d'Ivoire (UCCCI) at the Centre culturel francais in Abidjan. In its early years, the festival focused on Ivorian filmmakers and film clubs.

In 2004, the festival expanded its scope to include all young filmmakers from the eight UEMOA member states, transforming from a national event into a regional competition. This expansion aligned with UEMOA's cultural cooperation objectives and created a structured pipeline for identifying filmmaking talent across Francophone West Africa.

Since 2012, the festival has been organized by ONAC-CI (Office national du cinema de Cote d'Ivoire), the government film office. This institutional support has provided more stable funding and organizational capacity, though the festival remains modest in scale compared to FESPACO or major international festivals.

The 25th edition in 2025 was opened by Assane Thiam, representing the Minister of Culture and Francophonie Francoise Remarck, confirming the government's continued institutional backing. Johnson Lison Fall Diomande, director general of Cote d'Ivoire Cinema, emphasized the festival's role in discovering, training, and revealing new filmmaking talent across the sub-region.

See Also

Calculate your total festival submission costs and projected return using the Festival ROI Calculator. Estimate your acceptance probability with the Festival Acceptance Odds Estimator. For festival circuit strategy and planning, see Film Festival Strategy. For the major pan-African film festival, see FESPACO. For understanding West African cinema markets, see International Film Markets.