Harare — Beaven Sandayi, a prolific young sculptor based at Dominic Studios in Greendale, has been selected to design the awards trophies of this year's edition of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival.

Beaven, who started his sculpting career in Honde Valley before moving to Dominic Studios owned by renowned sculptor Dominic Benhura in recent years, said he was humbled by the honour bestowed upon him to sculpt the

trophies for such a prestigious event.

"Right now I am working on those (trophies) and once I am through I am expecting to deliver them to ZIFF offices soon

"All I can say is that I feel humbled to be selected for such an honourable job," he said.

This year the trophies depict a Zimbabwean map inside a larger map of the African continent with an eye in the middle, symbolising the far-reaching tentacles and influence of film as a medium of communication as well as an art form.

Annually, ZIFF seeks a new sculptor to design the awards trophies and last year the trophies were designed by Tonderai Mashaya.

The idea of the trophies -- that are offered to filmmakers whose productions would have excelled at the festival -- was first mooted in 2000 and since then they have become a permanent feature of ZIFF.

Zimbabwe International Film Festival Trust executive director Nakai Matema said the trophies sought to give recognition to outstanding filmmakers while at the same time promoting artistes from other genres.

"We launched the awards trophies with the aim to promote other arts since film incorporates all arts.

"Basically we are trying to promote each other as artistes," she said.

Nakai also added that one other major significance behind the trophies was to promote Zimbabwean culture through arts since the awards trophies would be given to filmmakers from different parts of the world.

"It is also our mandate to promote Zimbabwean culture. What this means is that these trophies, when they are given to different winners, they travel to different countries of the world thereby promoting Zimbabwean culture and arts," she said.

Festival organisers select a sculptor of their choice each year whom they assign to design the trophies according to the theme of that particular year.

This year's festival is being held under the theme: "The Art of Film, Film as Art" and its aim is to promote other art forms connected to film.