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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service has announced its plans to bring the most and the best of the Fespaco film festival to audiences in Africa and the rest of the world.

From Saturday 28 February the international multimedia broadcaster's teams in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, will report on the breadth of the bi-annual pan-African cinematic forum.

Editor of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service African Productions, David Stead, says: "All our key programme teams will be in Ouagadougou to bring our audiences the talent, the ideas and the creativity showcased at this year's Fespaco festival, as well as its scale and excitement.

"³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service is committed to being at the heart of the arts in Africa, as well as celebrating excellence, and Fespaco is an event which offers us fantastic opportunities to do just that."

From Monday 2 March to Friday 6 March, a special programme, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Fespaco Live, presented by Audrey Brown, will bring reports from across festival locations and exclusive interviews with film-makers, celebrities and other guests (at 16.46 GMT daily).

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's flagship daily news and analysis programme for the continent, Focus On Africa, will broadcast live from the festival's opening and closing ceremonies and run regular updates throughout the week. There'll also be full coverage on Network Africa and Weekend Network, the morning programme for the continent (03.30, 04.30, 05.30, 06.30 and 07.30 GMT and on Saturday and Sunday at 04.00 and 06.00 GMT).

The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's French for Africa service, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Afrique, will cover Fespaco throughout the festival week. The team will be joined by journalists from Horizon, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's rebroadcasting partner FM radio and TV network in Burkina Faso.

The morning and evening news and current affairs programmes, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Matin (06.00 GMT) and ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Soir (18.30 GMT), will keep audiences abreast of festival developments, while this month's edition of the debate programme, L'Afrique En Direct, will discuss African film with an invited audience in Ouagadougou.

The Strand, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service's arts and entertainment show in English, will cover the forum throughout the week with regular reports from presenter Mark Coles. The programme will look at how the festival is working, following film-makers as they pitch their work, and seek critics' and Fespaco jury members' views on issues such as where the next Nollywood will be and what is the global market for African film.

³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ World Service Publicity