LAZA

Biography

Laza holds a Master’s degree in film directing / assistant director for cinematographic and audiovisual works. He studied in Paris at La Fémis and at ESEC.

In 2006, he created the annual Rencontres du Film Court de Madagasikara (RFC), now known internationally through MADAGASCOURT Film Festival, where he remains the director.

With his production company Rozifilms and the ecosystem he has built around MADAGASCOURT / RFC, Laza has played a central role in the emergence of contemporary Malagasy cinema. Over the past fifteen years, he has produced, executive-produced or directly supported the work of the overwhelming majority of Malagasy directors active today — close to nine out of ten — while also creating the SERASARY Fund in 2011 to support production.

He is President of APASER, the Pan-African Alliance of Screenwriters and Directors, and is strongly engaged in projects defending the rights of African audiovisual authors. He is a board member of FEPACI, the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers, and a board member of AVACI, the Audiovisual Authors International Confederation.

Since 2023, he has served, and continues to serve, as Direção de Curadoria for the Encontro de Cinema Negro Zózimo Bulbul in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

His international curatorial work also includes the Festival International de Films de Fribourg (FIFF), where he curated the 2014 parallel section “Terra incognita: Madagascar / Nouveau territoire: Madagascar”, introducing Malagasy cinema through a selection of feature films, documentaries, shorts and animation works.

Through CINEMALAGASY, presented in the official SFC | Rendez-vous Industry market catalogue of the Festival de Cannes / Cinéma de Demain, he has created an international showcase for short films from Madagascar and works connected to Malagasy cinema.

From 2019 to 2023, he was a member of the selection committee of FESPACO, the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou. From 2016 to 2020, he was a member of the Cinema Commission of the Fonds Image de la Francophonie of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.

He has also been a mentor for projects at Talents Durban / Durban FilmMart, and has served as an expert for Berlinale Talents.

He has served on the juries of numerous film festivals, including the Locarno Film Festival (Jury), FESPACO (Jury), Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage (JCC, Jury), Festival Films Courts de Dinan (Jury), Interfilm Berlin, Kenya International Film Festival (KIFF), International Film Festival of Africa and Islands (FIFAI) in La Réunion, Comoros International Film Festival (CIFF), and the International Film Festival of Kinshasa (FIKIN) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He has also worked as a film consultant and cultural expert for numerous institutions and cultural organizations, including the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), UNESCO, the European Union Delegation to Madagascar and the Comoros, the Indian Ocean Commission, the Institut français de Madagascar, and the Goethe-Zentrum Antananarivo / CGM.

Press Portraits & Festival Kit

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