13 Months of Sunshine was the opening screening at this year’s New African Cinema Film Festival at the AFI’s Silver Theatre. It, along with 29 other films, helped make this festival the most successful one yet. From the Gazette:

Opening night of the New African Films Festival brought more than 400 people to the lobby of the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre and Cultural Center March 19, but it wasn’t a typical night at the movies.

While awaiting the first movie, “13 Months of Sunshine,” attendees of the opening night cocktail hour could bypass the usual movie popcorn and candy, and opt for a buffet featuring ye’abesha gomen (collard greens) and tikil gomen (cabbage) as well as beets and Ethiopian bread, compliments of nearby Abol Ethiopian Restaurant.

The film festival, which celebrates African culture and aims to give a better feel for life in African countries, had seven successful days at AFI, its third year at the theater on Colesville Road in downtown Silver Spring. Now in its fifth season, this year’s festival featured about 30 films.

Susan Bluttman, AFI’s media and public relations manager, was thrilled with the opening night turnout, noting that while only 195 tickets had been sold in advance, the first movie was sold out, and the standby line was still growing with only a few minutes to go before the 7:30 p.m. showing.