Creativity at the African Cristal Festival – a continent of original storytellers

Nimo Awil, Creative Director, Forsman & Bodenfors, and 2024 Jury President at the African Cristal Festival.
The first African Cristal Festival was held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in 2012, having been set up as a counter to the long shadow cast by South African-based agencies at existing award shows.
Fourteen years later, the African Cristal Festival continues to thrive, with 527 entries submitted this year from 22 countries across the continent.
As a 2024 Jury President, here’s my take on what it was like to be the first female Jury head when the group convened in Casablanca recently, and what I took away from the experien