The Pan African Screen Awards (PASA) were founded in 2008 by Sankanu, and the ceremony took place for the first time during the 2008 Out of Africa Film Festival in Germany. France-based Nigerian director Newton Aduaka won the main prize for his 2007 film Ezra on the Sierra Leone Civil War. In 2016, the awards were attached to CIFF as a result of Sankanu's involvement in both.