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Build the Audience: WiC aims at African cinema’s missing link, audiences

Deepixels launches WiC, a new audience infrastructure initiative for African screen content, at Durban FilmMart 2026

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA: African cinema has spent decades building filmmakers, films, festivals, markets and production capacity. Yet one fundamental challenge remains: how d­­o African films consistently find, grow and sustain paying African audiences?

At Durban FilmMart 2026 (9-12 October), Deepixels will introduce WiC, Watch in Community, an audience infrastructure initiative designed to help build new audience markets for African screen content.

The launch forms part of a broader proposition Deepixels is bringing to the industry, that every film is made for someone, and the challenge is to find them.

WiC is being developed in response to the persistent gap between the creation of African screen content and the systems required to connect that content with audiences over time.

“Across African film, we have invested substantially in creative development, production capacity and market access,” says Toni Monty, Co-Founder of Deepixels. “The missing discipline has been sustained audience development. WiC is designed to help address that gap by building practical routes between content, audiences, transactions and exhibition, so that more African stories can find viable markets over time.”

Toni Monty

WiC connects digital discovery and ticket acquisition with physical exhibition, enabling screen content to reach audiences through a network of programmable venues and community-based cinema environments. The model brings together content discovery, programming, ticketing, exhibition and audience intelligence, creating a system through which audience relationships can be developed over time rather than ending with an individual screening or release.

“WiC is not simply a screening initiative or a streaming product,” says Ross Joughin, Co-Founder of Deepixels. “It is a connected technology system that brings content discovery, ticket acquisition, programming, venue operations, payments and audience intelligence into one operating environment. That integration is what enables the model to be tested, measured and refined as it grows.”

Ross Joughin

WiC does not position itself as a replacement for existing cinemas, festivals, broadcasters, streaming platforms or distributors. It is intended to create additional audience pathways and exhibition opportunities within the wider screen ecosystem.

WiC will be introduced to the film industry during a session at the 2026 Durban FilmMart titled: BUILD THE AUDIENCE: WiC takes aim at African cinema’s missing link: audiences, on Friday, 9 October 2026 from 11:15–12:00 at the Elangeni Hotel, Durban.

The session will explore the gap between content creation and sustained audience access, and introduce Deepixels’ approach to connecting content, communities, exhibition spaces, transactions and audience data within a new distribution and exhibition ecosystem.

The presentation will be led by Ross Joughin, with fellow Deepixels co-founders Toni Monty and Molise Ramaili and Content Partners Helen Kuun, Indigenous Film Distribution and Paul Robinson, NEFTI Films, joining the session for discussion and audience Q&A.

Delegates will also be able to experience WiC through a pop-up WiC Cinema, a dedicated screening venue presenting a curated programme of African screen content, and at the Deepixels / WiC exhibition stand, where they can engage with the platform and the wider audience-infrastructure model.

The WiC Cinema programme will bring together selected films submitted directly to WiC with titles presented in collaboration with WiC content partners Indigenous Film Distribution and NEFTI Films. NEFTI will contribute a curated short-film showcase, while Indigenous Film Distribution will bring selected titles from its catalogue into the programme, alongside a broader selection of African screen content. The full WiC Cinema programme, including screening times and participating titles, will be announced separately.

Building beyond Durban FilmMart

Durban FilmMart marks WiC’s public introduction and an important stage in its pilot development.

“WiC is also an industrial-development proposition,” says Molise Ramaili, Co-Founder of Deepixels. “It creates a framework through which local venues, operators, content owners and partners can participate in a new entertainment economy. The opportunity is to develop commercially viable community exhibition infrastructure, mobilise investment around it and build an enterprise model capable of expanding across markets.”

Molise Ramaili

Following DFM, Deepixels plans to continue testing the model through a South African pilot rollout, working with content partners, audiences, venue operators and other industry stakeholders to refine its commercial, operational and technical model. The longer-term ambition is to build scalable audience infrastructure capable of connecting more African stories with audiences across multiple markets.

“Deepixels is therefore using the DFM launch not simply to introduce a product, but to invite the industry into a larger conversation: if we want sustainable African cinema, we have to build sustainable African audiences,” concludes Ramaili.

For more information about WiC go to www.wicstream.com.

For more information about the Durban FilmMart go to: https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/

Durban FilmMart Industry Programme Goes Live for 2026 Edition

The Durban FilmMart Institute (DFM) has announced that the industry programme for its 2026 edition, taking place from 9 to 12 October in Durban, is now live. This year's line-up brings together sessions on equitable co-production, film financing, advocacy and lobbying, artificial intelligence and emerging formats such as vertical drama, alongside dedicated Impact and Animation Day strands and its partner-programmed offering.

 This programme reflects where the African film industry is currently: expanding audiences, growing co-production pathways and new capital arriving in new forms, but also asks real questions about advocacy, technology and who gets to shape the future of the sector,” says Magdalene Reddy, Director of the Durban FilmMart Institute.

Khosie Dali (financing panel). She is the award-winning South African producer behind Sons of the Sea, which won Best South African Film at DIFF. 

Sessions dealing with finance and film include Talking Cents: Where's The Change: Co-production Beyond Financial Collaboration which brings together filmmakers and organisations to reflect on collaborative methods grounded in collective responsibility and interconnectedness, while interrogating the future of collaboration. Then Talking Cents: More Than Making Cents: A New View on Financing Film explores non-traditional financing approaches, including cooperative ecologies that lead to greater creative control, narrative sovereignty and the retention of intellectual property.

Sam Soko (film financing panel). Soko's debut documentary Softie premiered at Sundance 2020 and won the Special Jury Award for Editing. His company LBx Africa produced the 2018 Oscar-nominated short Watu Wote. He has awards credentials and is a pan-African, activist-filmmaker.

African film industries are growing, but growth without protection is fragile. Who Is Fighting Our Corner? Film Advocacy and Lobbying on the African Continent is a panel featuring representatives involved in active advocacy and lobbying work across the continent, from guilds and professional associations to filmmaker collectives and civil society bodies. Here they will examine what advocacy looks like in practice, where it has succeeded and failed, and how audiences fit into the advocacy picture.

Marie Lora-Mungai (Advocacy and Lobbying). She is an investor and advisor whose firm has worked with IFC, Proparco, Afreximbank, Netflix and Warner Bros. She is outspoken on AI, having urged African filmmakers to use AI tools to create content independently. She's a quotable, business-press-friendly voice on "where the money is going”.

One of DFM Alumni success stories features in an inspiring case-study: From the DFM to the Croisette: Samantha Biffot on Producing "Ben'Imana". Producer Samantha Biffot traces the years-long journey of Ben'Imana, Marie Clémentine Dusabejambo's Rwandan-Gabonese drama, from its early development as a work-in-progress project at the DFM to its celebrated premiere in Un Certain Regard at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it went on to win the FIPRESCI Prize and the Caméra d'Or. Biffot will discuss the realities of financing and packaging an international co-production across Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway, and Ivory Coast, and what it takes to carry a story about memory and survival after genocide from a market pitch to the world stage.

Samantha Biffot (Ben'Imana session). Ben'Imana was the first feature from the African continent to win the Caméra d'Or, and it was also the first film by a Rwandan director in Cannes' official selection. It also took the FIPRESCI Prize. Biffot is the Gabonese producer who presented the project at La Fabrique Cinéma in 2022 with the director, and the DFM connection makes it a "from the market to the Croisette" success story. 

Artificial intelligence continues to be a hot topic across the film landscape, and animation filmmaking may be the most affected, given how integral the intersection of art and technology already is to the creative process.  In AI and Animation panellists interrogate what AI means for the world of animation filmmaking, the opportunities, the risks, and the long-term effect on a developing sector such as African animation

Hamid Ibrahim (AI and Animation). He is the CEO of Kugali Media, and the Disney+ series Iwájú he co-created earned three Children's and Family Emmy nominations. It was Walt Disney Animation's first collaboration with an independent company. Hamid's creative journey spans some of Hollywood's most iconic productions, including The Lion King (2019), Dumbo (2019), The Predator (2018), The Darkest Minds (2018), and Dolittle (2020).

Vertical dramas have exploded onto the international scene, reshaping how stories are consumed on mobile-first platforms and unlocking new revenue models for creators. In Short Form, Big Impact: The Rise of Vertical Dramas panellists examine the format's rapid global rise and its emerging footprint on the African continent, and whether it could become a viable new pathway for content and commerce.

Flavia Motsisi of Both Worlds Media, Development Executive and Creative Producer, brings with her over a decade of experience shaping award-winning African television and film. An International Emmy nominee and a Forbes Africa honoree for her contribution to scripted content.

These sessions feature as just a small part of the Durban FilmMart’s extensive four-day industry programme. This year's Industry Programme is built around a single conviction: that the African film industry's future depends on the strength and honesty of its relationships — with capital, with audiences, with partners abroad, and with itself.

The Co-production Focus stream interrogates what genuine partnership looks like in practice, from sessions like Fruits of Labour: Service as a Form of Coproduction, which asks whether South African service companies deserve recognition as true collaborators, to South Africa as Coproducing Partner, which confronts the administrative turbulence currently testing the country's long-standing treaty network, through to Brazil-Africa: Building Bridges Through Coproduction, which looks outward to new South-South alliances.

Minnie Harris Head of MTN Group Digital Service Verticals and Markets

That same spirit of scrutiny runs through The Power of Programming stream, where sessions on industry programming itself and the pressures facing the international festival circuit ask what infrastructure the sector still lacks and who is being left out of it, while two closed-door think tanks on distribution and audience design push past diagnosis into practical strategy for reaching African audiences on their own terms.

Sector-specific strands deepen the picture with CTIAF's Animation Day, tackles the business of building a sustainable animation industry; Doc Society and its partners' Doc Day: Impact Edition reframes impact producing as a discipline as rigorous as directing or financing; and NEWF's Beyond the Wild sessions push natural world storytelling toward questions of spirituality, authorship and ownership.

Threaded through all of it is a set of international partnerships- most visibly the Canadian delegation and the Cross Continental Forum's 25th-anniversary panel, that embody DFM's core mandate to be the meeting space where shared interest across continents becomes something built together.

To find more information on the sessions above, the rest of the Durban FilmMart Industry Programme and so much more, go to https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/

The 17th edition of Durban FilmMart, in association with MultiChoice and principal funding from the National Lotteries Commission, is supported by the following funders and partners:

eThekwini Municipality, Durban Film Office, Ford Foundation, National Film and Video Foundation, Hollywood Foundation, MTN Group, KwaZulu-Natal Tourism and Film Authority, Expertise France and GIZ, The International Emerging Film Talent Fund, NEFTI, Industrial Development Corporation, Netflix, CNC, Arab Culture Fund, Avalon Group, French Institute of South Africa, Animation SA, African Producers Accelerator, Berlinale Talents, Canada High Commission of South Africa, Caribbeantales and the Cross Continental Forum, Chiriseri Studios, Climate Story Labs Africa, Cape Town International Animation Festival, Department of Communication and Digital Technology, Disabled Audio-Visual Worker's Network, Documentary Filmmakers Association, Durban International Film Festival, Doc Society, Documentary Africa, Durban University of Technology, Eastern Cape Development Corporation, Embassy of Cote d'Ivoire, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs, FIVA, FIPRESCI, Gauteng Film Commission, Independent Black Filmmakers Collective, IMPACT (Canada), Independent Producers Organisation, Habesha Creative, Ladima Foundation, Nature Environment Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF), South African Audio Visual Cluster, South African Guild of Actors, South Africa Guild of Editors, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Storyboard Collective, Sisters Working in Film and Television (SWIFT), Palestine Film Institute, Tunga Media Afrika, WGSA, WiC.  Media Partners include Arena Holdings and Variety.

Mother City Brings Groundbreaking Documentary to the Big Screen in Nationwide Cinema Release

Acclaimed groundbreaking indie documentary Mother City, set for screenings at Ster-Kinekor, giving audiences across South Africa the opportunity to experience the film on the big screen.

Documentaries have long played second fiddle to fiction on the big screen, but that's changing. Audiences worldwide are increasingly choosing the cinema for non-fiction storytelling, and Mother City, directed by Miki Redelinghuys and Pearlie Joubert, is riding that wave with a nationwide release at Ster-Kinekor Cinemas from 1 October.

The documentary will screen at selected Ster-Kinekor cinemas nationwide, with ticket prices at R50. The release marks a significant moment for local non-fiction filmmaking, bringing an acclaimed South African documentary to a wider cinema audience at an accessible ticket price. 

March to Woodstock Police - Credit: Barry Christianson

Mother City followed Cape Town’s Reclaim the City activists' six-year fight for affordable housing on public land, and the story is centred on the iconic old Tafelberg School site, situated in the Atlantic Seaboard. The film kept the case in public view and amplified the voices of activists and the Ndifuna Ukwazi legal centre, turning the documentary into a tool for sustained pressure. In July 2026 the Constitutional Court ruling declared the Tafelberg sale unlawful, affirming the movement's core argument that the government has a constitutional duty to provide affordable housing within the inner city, and that high property values or land scarcity can't be used as an excuse to avoid that duty. The ruling ignited audiences’ urgent requests  to see Mother City that follows - blow by blow - the thrilling courtroom drama and bold activism. 

Told with raw honesty, fearless journalism, a cinematic eye, and genuine edge-of-your-seat tension, Mother City is exactly the kind of documentary changing what audiences expect from the genre.

Occupy Rondebosch Golf Course - Credit: Barry Christianson

Mother City’s journey to South African cinemas is itself part of the story. Since premiering at Sheffield DocFest in 2024, the film has screened more than 180 times at festivals and venues around the world, picking up numerous awards along the way. Its festival success and international screenings have built strong momentum ahead of its South African cinema release.

“We made Mother City to be seen, not just at festivals, but by the communities whose stories it tells. Having Ster-Kinekor bring the film to cinemas nationwide is proof that South African audiences want to see their own realities reflected on the big screen. Land and housing activism in South Africa is uniquely powerful, innovative, reflecting our shared humanity” says Pearlie. 

Miki concurs “This isn't just a milestone for the film; it's a milestone for what a local documentary can achieve by bringing these urgent and evocative stories of ordinary people to the big screen.”

DATES

Thu 1 Oct 17:00 / Sat 3 Oct 14:30 / Sun 4 Oct 14:30 / Thu 8 Oct 20:00

Western Province: V&A Waterfront, N1 City, Blue Route Mall, Somerset West Mall

Gauteng: Rosebank Nouveau, Eastgate Mall, Brooklyn Mall

Kwazulu-Natal: Watercrest Mall

Eastern Cape: Baywest Mall

For tickets : https://www.sterkinekor.com/f/mother-city/722


Durban FilmMart expands 2026 line-up with animation, impact producing and natural world storytelling partnerships

Durban, South Africa – September 2026 – The Durban FilmMart (DFM) has announced an expanded partner programme for its 17th edition, running in Durban from 9 to 12 October 2026. Three new industry strands - developed with the Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF), a coalition of documentary impact producing organisations, and the Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers organisation (NEWF) - bring animation, impact producing and natural world storytelling into DFM's core programme.

"This year's partner programme strands reflect exactly the kind of collaboration DFM exists to enable,” says Magdalene Reddy, Director of the Durban FilmMart Institute. "We are always open to working with organisations who share our commitment to strengthening the African film ecosystem, and these partnerships allow us to bring specialist expertise into the DFM programme for the benefit of the filmmakers and industry professionals we serve."

ANIMATION DAYS - with Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF)

The strand moves the conversation beyond talent to infrastructure: financing, studios, audiences and IP. 

"Animation is often talked about as if the only question is whether Africa has the talent," says Dianne Makings, Festival Director of CTIAF. "We know we have the talent. The bigger question is what happens next; who commissions the work, who finances it, who builds the studios, who develops the audiences and how do we create an industry that allows African creators to keep making African stories." 

Sessions include Innovate. Animate. Elevate.: From Cape Town Studio to Global Market, on building a real studio cluster; Beyond the Festival Circuit: Who Is Watching African Animation?, tracing the pipeline from commissioning to audience development; and Too Big for Grants, Too Small for Investors: The Missing Middle, on financing the jump from small teams to scalable studios. The programme also features a WATA Creative Workshop for women in African animation and gaming, plus studio networking and a screening of CTIAF's Best of 2026 selection.

IMPACT DAY - with Documentary Africa, The StoryBoard Collective, Perspective Fund, Real Reel Impact, Doc Society, Climate Story Labs Africa, Tunga Media Afrika, UCT Centre for Film and Media Studies, Climate Story Lab ZA, Climate Story Lab Lagos, South x Sul Network and UMI Fund

A full-day working forum on impact producing across the filmmaking lifecycle - not just at delivery. Highlights include a case study on Children of Honey, presented by Odera Onyore Nyambok II (Documentary Africa); an Impact Hackathon building live strategies for three documentary projects; case studies on Get Reel and Murder in Paris; a fishbowl discussion on impact financing with Doc Society, DocuBox and Documentary Africa; and The Climate Cine-bar, a screening-and-dialogue session on films that move audiences beyond the screen.

Top Row (L-R): Mohamed Saïd Ouma (Documentary Africa), Miki Redelinghuys (Plexus Films), Matamba Kombila (Dougantsi Films), Dr Liani Maasdorp (UCT Centre for Film and Media Studies, Climate Story Lab ZA, RRI Mentor)

Middle Row (L-R): Enver Samuel (EMS Productions), Khadidja Benouataf (Impact Social Club and RRI Mentor), Julian Etienne (Doc Society)

Bottom Row (L-R): Wanja Emily (Doc Society), Cindy Makandi (Tunga Media Afrika), Anthony Ochieng Onyango (TonyWild Foundation), Susan Mbogo (DocuBox)

NATURAL WORLD STORYTELLING - with NEWF

"So many of the stories emerging from the continent remind us that nature is not separate from people," says Pragna Parsotam-Kok, Executive Director, NEWF. "Social, environmental and climate justice intersect, conservation films explore people and place, and stories about the natural world can move between documentary, fiction and natural history. Now more than ever, it matters that African voices are part of global conversations about our environment, nature and wildlife. Together, we hope to invite filmmakers who may not yet see themselves as nature world storytellers, to bring their voices, craft and perspectives to the wild side; and to expand what natural world storytelling can be, who gets to shape it and how these stories are shared with the world.”

Sessions include Beyond the Wild: Representing Nature and Spirituality on Screen, with Pippa Ehrlich, Zolani Mahola, Dr Gcina Mhlophe and Gogo Lindi Dlamini; Beyond the Wild: Getting the Shot, on wildlife cinematography with NEWF Fellows; and Beyond the Wild: Expanding Stories About the Natural World. Delegates can also explore The NEWF Room, an immersive exhibition featuring 360° VR from Zululand to Sodwana Bay's reefs and the multiplayer game Aquabots, alongside The Wild Side, a curated shorts programme.

Top Row (L-R): Thihangwi Ramutsindela (Nga Maanda Awe Film Festival and NEWF), Nondumiso Masache (Zenkosi Films), Matamba Kombila (Dougantsi Films), Anthony Ochieng Onyango (TonyWild Foundation), Sewela Mutileni (Beat of Africa Productions)

Middle Row: (L-R): Pippa Ehrlich, Zolani Mahola, Dr Gcina Mhlophe, Gogo Lindi Dlamini

Bottom Row (L-R): Nkosikhona Mthembu, Carlos Norhona, Elshadaye Temesgen, Nathan Rice, Chisomo Kawaga

Registration for the DFM can be done on the website: durbanfilmmart.co.za

For inquiries: info@durbanfilmmart.com

The 17th edition Durban FilmMart is funded by the Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, Ford Foundation, the National Film and Video Foundation and IEFTF.

Mad Solutions Boards Second South African Film ‘God’s Work’ for Worldwide Sales

MAD World, the global sales arm of Cairo-based MAD Solutions, has boarded South African feature God’s Work, written and directed by Durban-based filmmaker Michael James, for worldwide sales.

The deal marks the second South African title represented by MAD World in collaboration with Mojo Entertainment, following the company’s partnership on Zamo Mkhwanazi’s Laundry (Uhlanjululo). The latter marked MAD Solutions’ first acquisition of a non-Arab title, as the company continues to expand its international activities and build relationships with filmmakers and production companies beyond the Arab world.

Produced by Sithabile Mkhize under Maverick Resistance, God’s Work is a 2025 South African feature set in the streets of Durban, where six unhoused men find fragile refuge in a crumbling building while navigating violence, indifferent authorities and a society that has pushed them to its margins.

Blending social drama with psychological and surreal elements, the film moves between the characters’ external reality and their memories, visions and inner worlds. Through this shifting perspective, James explores the ways in which imagination, myth and memory can become intertwined with the experience of survival.

The film had its world premiere at the Durban International Film Festival and subsequently screened at the Luxor African Film Festival, marking its Arab-world premiere.

“God’s Work is exactly the kind of bold and distinctive filmmaking that we believe deserves to travel beyond its country of origin,” said Alaa Karkouti and Maher Diab, Co-Presidents of MAD World. “Michael James has created a socially urgent yet formally adventurous film, using surrealism and fiction to take us inside the realities, memories and inner worlds of people living on the margins. Our collaboration with Mojo Entertainment on Laundry introduced us to a South African filmmaking ecosystem that we found incredibly exciting, and God’s Work allows us to continue that relationship while taking on a film whose voice is deeply rooted in its local reality yet speaks to universal questions of inequality, power, dignity and survival. We are very pleased to bring this second South African collaboration with Mojo to the international market.”

Sithabile Mkhize, Producer of God’s Work, said: “We are thrilled to have MAD Solutions come aboard. Their understanding of and enthusiasm for the film give us great confidence as God’s Work begins this important journey to audiences around the world. We believe MAD’s international reach and commitment to distinctive cinema will help the film connect with audiences and partners far beyond South Africa.”

For James, the film grew out of his experience working with unhoused communities in Durban during the COVID-19 lockdown. Invited initially to document people living in government-established camps, the filmmaker began participating in weekly workshops with a group of young people who identified themselves as filmmakers. The experience ultimately led him away from a conventional documentary approach and toward a fictional narrative that could explore the intersection of lived experience, imagination and memory.

James is a filmmaker, writer, academic and artist based in Durban whose work explores the intersections of myth, history, identity, race, gender, class and religion across film, theatre and academia. His previous feature, Dreams of Gomorrah, won three Simon Sabela Awards and two African Rising Star Awards in 2020. His documentary Free Education: The Story of Bonginkosi Khanyile premiered at the Encounters Documentary Film Festival in 2018 before receiving three awards at the African Diaspora Cinema Festival in Italy.

Producer Sithabile Mkhize is a screenwriter and creative producer based in Durban. Her previous feature, Dreams of Gomorrah, was acquired by MultiChoice/M-Net and received several award nominations. She has also produced documentaries for South African broadcaster e.tv and participated in international film-industry programmes including the Berlinale, Cannes Film Festival and the Trajectory training programme.

The film features Thobani Nzuza, Mbulelo Radebe, Zenzo Msomi, Nduduzo Khowa, Omega Mncube and Siya Xaba. Cinematography is by Jared Hinde, editing by Dionysios Xenos, with an original score by internationally acclaimed composer and musician George Acogny.

God’s Work is produced by Maverick Resistance, with co-production by Marco Orsini and executive production by Toni Monty and Gary Springer. The film was made in association with the KwaZulu-Natal Film and Tourism Authority, the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa, Amafrika Films and Mojo Entertainment LLC, with support from the Durban Film Office , MAD World is handling worldwide sales.

South African Industry Organisations Featured at the 17th Durban FilmMart

DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA (24 August 2026) — The Durban FilmMart remains a significant gateway to the African and global film industry for film professionals. This year, the programme, which is designed with panel discussions, masterclasses, pitch forums and networking opportunities, also offers a focus on South African cinema through its “SA in Focus” programming stream. This focus brings together the nation's most influential industry bodies, guilds and creative professionals to address the current state and future of the local audiovisual sector.

Taking place under the theme “Shifting Worlds: Turning Towards Ourselves,” the 17th Durban FilmMart, scheduled from 9 to 12 October 2026, once again anchors conversations about the health and future of the local industry within the wider market.

“The local South African industry is navigating real challenges,” says Durban FilmMart Institute Director, Magdalene Reddy. “The 2026 DFM has been programmed with a view that answers begin at home: it begins in the strength of our guilds, the ability of our practitioners to pivot, and our willingness to have honest conversations about what needs to change. By bringing together the organisations that represent South African film professionals, DFM 2026 reaffirms that a thriving local industry is the foundation for everything else we build internationally.”

Opening the SA stream, Animation SA will unpack how the sector is adapting to consolidation, shifting streaming algorithms and the rise of generative AI in the session “Africa-Centred Collaboration in a Shifting Landscape — New Strategies and Practices in Marketing, Distribution and Community Development for Animation and Gaming.” The panel features Isabelle Rorke, Mocke Jansen van Veuren, Rashid Juma, Xolile Vundla and Nick Cloete.

Xolile Vundla

The Documentary Filmmakers Association turns to the changing shape of nonfiction storytelling with “Slow Stories in a Fast World: Documentary in the Age of Infinite Content,” asking what remains uniquely documentary as creator culture and vertical storytelling reshape audience habits. The session includes Sara Hatira, Sifiso Nobela, Catherine Meyburgh, Jane Lipman and Jacqui Hlongwane.

The Writers Guild of South Africa presents “Writers vs the Machine,” tackling AI's growing role in writing and what it means for authorship, craft and copyright. The panel brings together Busisiwe Ntintili, Sizwe Fortune Zuma, Bongi Ndaba and Zunaid Mansoor.

Zunaid Mansoor

Making the case for involving editors earlier in the process, the South African Guild of Editors presents “Editors at the Table: Why Story Should Start Before Post,” arguing that stronger communication from development onward leads to healthier productions and better films. The panel features Melissa Parry, Nikki Comninos, Simon Beesley and Sifiso Khanyile.

Sifiso Khanyile

The Independent Black Filmmakers Collective confronts the structural pressures facing local production, addressing delayed incentive payments and funding uncertainty. The session, “The System Is Broken. Let's Fix It,” will also review lessons learned from countries that have successfully repositioned their audiovisual sectors. The panel brings together Lehlohonolo Mokhosi, Tumelo Chipfupa and Tshepiso Chikapa Phiri.

Tshepiso Chikapa Phiri

The Independent Producers Organisation joins this focus, the focus on the Olsberg SPI Economic Study.  The session will unpack the importance, relevance and potential impact of the study, with a particular focus on how its findings can inform the future development, sustainability and growth of South Africa’s film and television industry.  The session will feature Delon Bakker, Jade Gezane, Luke Rous, Paul Buys and Wandile Molebatsi.

Wandile Molebatsi

The South African Guild of Actors turns to questions of ownership and equity with “Turning Towards Ourselves: Performers as Co-Creators in African IP Ecosystems.” The panel discussion, proposing that performers share earlier and more fairly in the IP they help originate, rather than remaining downstream labour, will feature Adrian Galley, Vicki Bawcombe, Hungani Ndlovu and Neo Mothae.

Hungani Ndlovu

Ensuring women's perspectives remain central to industry change, Sisters Working in Film and Television (SWIFT) will present “Women's Voices on Industry Dialogues: Why Your Voice Matters.” This call for greater representation on industry bodies and in policy conversations will feature Miranda Ntshangase, Kaona Letlape, Loreley Yeowart and Amilcar Patel with Marion Seymour moderating the session.

Miranda Ntshangase

Alongside these industry-led panel discussions, the DFM programme will also feature South African policymakers throughout the event. Making their first appearance at DFM will be the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture's newly established cluster — the South African Audio-Visual Cluster and Pixel Creators (Animation and Gaming Cluster)— who will join discussions in October 2026 in Durban, positioning DFM as the essential gathering point for South African film industry advancement.

Register now: durbanfilmmart.co.za

For inquiries: info@durbanfilmmart.com

The 17th edition Durban FilmMart is funded by the Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, Ford Foundation, the National Film and Video Foundation and IEFTF.

About the Durban FilmMart Institute:

Durban FilmMart Institute is the business hub of the African film industry in a world where film professionals and content are globally competitive and celebrated. The mission of the Durban FilmMart Institute is to provide appropriate and effective programmes and services to promote, support and facilitate investment in the African film industry.

13th European Film Festival South Africa Programme Announced

The 13th European Film Festival South Africa presents the latest award-winning, critically-acclaimed and star-studded European films for local audiences to experience in cinemas around South Africa from 17 to 27 September. As the world faces ever faster and enormous changes, the festival’s offerings from across the continent paints intimate, human portraits of family in all its different forms as vital to personal, psychological and social survival. 

This year’s programme boasts 12 films including new work from Oscar-winning directors Pawel Pawlikowski and Paolo Sorrentino; social realist legends, the Dardenne Brothers; BAFTA-winning feature debutant Akinola Davies Jr.; and intriguing, entertaining, always engaging work from both veteran and emerging European cinematic storytellers. Featuring impressive performances from the cream of European talent including Mads Mikkelsen, Javier Bardem, Sandra Hüller and Carice van Houten, and a host of newcomers ably meeting the challenges of demanding, emotional roles – the 13th edition of South Africa’s premier festival for cinema-lovers explores family and its realities and challenges across time, place and genre.  

Opening the festival is The Last Viking, with Denmark’s biggest star Mads Mikkelsen, leading the star-studded cast of this madcap, blackly comic Danish family-drama/crime-caper-noir about brothers, mental health, past secrets, the Beatles and getting by with more than a little bit of help from your friends. 

Winner of the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut, My Father’s Shadow (UK), British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr’s first feature marks the arrival of a vital, bold new voice in world cinema. Poetically realised with haunting imagery and bustling, vivid, angry life it’s a deeply personal film that’s a tribute not only to its creators’ own father but to all parents who daily face the struggles to keep their families alive and together at all costs. 

My Fathers Shadow ©Lakin Ogunbanwo

Germany’s offering Fatherland directed by Oscar-winning director Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida and Cold War), European cinema’s master of visual and narrative precision, delivers a tightly controlled, intimate, and heart-breaking portrait of German literature’s legendary Thomas Mann as he and his daughter make a journey across a nation trying to grapple with grief and the horrors of the past as the Cold War rages. Winner of the Best Director prize at this year’s Cannes Festival, the film stars Oscar-nominated Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall).

In Young Mothers (Belgium), the multiple award-winning Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne paint a small, gritty, and empathetic portrait of the struggles of young mothers. Abandoned by their families and society, these courageous and anxious young women support each other as they make the first of many tough adult decisions of their lives.  Winner of the Best Screenplay award at Cannes this year.

Young Mothers

Oscar- and BAFTA-winning leading Italian director Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) reteams with collaborator Toni Servillo in La Grazia (Italy). Servillo won a Best Actor statue at the Venice Film Festival for his performance in this elegantly styled, intimate drama about fathers, daughters, love, duty and the eternal question of “who owns our days?”- set against the grubby backdrop of Italian politics. 

La Grazia - Toni Servillo - © Andrea Pirrello

Colours of Time (France), directed by Cédric Klapisch is a family drama that weaves together stories from one family’s 19th century past and their 21st-century present. A memorably delightful and touching exploration of art, family and history. 

Porcelain War (Ukraine) directed by Brendan Bellomo and this stunning documentary’s key protagonist, Slava Leontyev, is an inspirational Oscar-nominated film in which Leontyev, his wife, and their friend tell, at great personal risk and with footage they shot, the story of how their lives as artists were brutally upended by the war in Ukraine. Now, with roles as Ukrainian soldiers – they’ve never lost their passion for art and nature as they risk everything for family, nation and freedom. 

Oscar winner Javier Bardem gives a brooding performance as the fictional, acclaimed, mercurial Spanish film director Esteban Martínez in The Beloved (Spain). Director Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Martinez returns to his homeland to film a colonial-era period drama set in the Western Sahara. 

The film unravels the fragile relationship between fathers and daughters and asks difficult questions about personal sacrifices made in service of art.

In A Family (Netherlands) Dutch director Mees Peijnenburg offers a powerful window on divorce in modern Europe, told empathetically through the eyes of a brother and sister trying to each find their own ways and hopefully a path together through the aftermath of the bitter war between their parents. It stars Carice van Houten (Game of Thrones) and Pieter Embrechts.

A Family © Jasper Wolf

Veteran award-winning Polish director Agnieszka Holland offers an energetic and generally bright biopic about the enigmatic literary genius Franz Kafka, in Franz. The film contemplates its protagonist, his difficult relationship with his father, and imagines how his legacy might be celebrated in the future. 

Ireland’s Christy is the debut feature from Brendan Canty that has picked up many nominations and awards at this year’s Irish Film and TV Awards for its tender direction and impressive lead performance from Danny Power as the title character – a teenager with a murkily remembered tragic past, who, after he’s kicked out of his latest foster home, returns to Cork to stay with his estranged brother. As he tries to figure out his future, he rediscovers the relationship with his brother and begins to imagine a home among people in a place he might yet grow to know and love.  

Christy

The extraordinary and original, Aquí (Portugal) is director Tiago Guedes’ ambitious, epic and suitably enigmatic adaptation of the Jesus trilogy of novels by South African Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee. It stays true to its source material’s humanist hopes, despairs and probing of the eternal philosophical questions that keep families and societies eternally (and anxiously) moving onward. 

The festival pays tribute to the tireless dedication and vision of a former co-director of the festival Peter Rorvik, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Peter was a passionate supporter of independent films, and nurtured a generation of film lovers and filmmakers across South Africa and beyond for decades. 

The 13th European Union Film Festival South Africa takes place from September 17 to 27, 2026 in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria.

For the full programme and schedule follow on social media or go to www.eurofilmfest.co.za

Award-winning South African feature opens at Ster-Kinekor Cinema Nouveau Rosebank from 10–16 July.

Before South African audiences have the opportunity to see God's Work on the big screen, the film has already attracted international acclaim for doing something few films attempt: turning the camera back on itself.

Earlier this year, God's Work won the Radwan El-Kashef Prize for Best Film Addressing an African Issue at the 15th Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt, where it celebrated its Middle East and North Africa premiere.

Named after the acclaimed Egyptian filmmaker Radwan El-Kashef, the award recognises films that engage deeply with African realities through cinematic excellence and artistic vision.

Yet the film's greatest achievement may not lie in what it shows, but in what it asks.

Set among Durban's unhoused communities, God's Work begins as what appears to be a documentary. As the story unfolds, however, the filmmaker himself enters the frame, exposing the uncomfortable power dynamics between those who are seen and those who control the act of seeing. Rather than claiming to speak for marginalised communities, the film interrogates whether that claim is ever truly possible.

Writer and director Michael James says the project emerged from recognising the limits of observation itself.

"The camera did not grant access - it revealed distance. I realised I wasn't simply documenting reality; I was constructing it through my own perspective. Rather than hide that tension, I wanted the film to confront it directly."

That bold approach drew particular praise from internationally respected South African filmmaker Ntshavheni Wa-Luruli, who served on the Luxor jury.

"What I appreciate about this film is its fearless commitment to a unique storytelling vision. It does not seek permission from established conventions, nor does it defer to the technical formalism that has too long defined and constrained South African filmmaking."

Wa-Luruli went on to praise the film's pursuit of "an authentic cinematic voice rooted in its own cultural soil" and described it as part of a new generation of South African filmmakers "willing to experiment, to dismantle inherited structures, and to build something new in their place in pursuit of a genuine South African film identity that has long been overdue."

Producer Sithabile Mkhize believes the film's greatest achievement lies in its willingness to examine the act of representation itself. "God's Work doesn't claim to speak on behalf of anyone. Instead, it asks audiences to consider how stories are told, whose perspectives shape them, and what responsibilities come with representing lives marked by inequality. Rather than offering easy conclusions, the film invites viewers into a conversation about visibility, empathy and the ethics of looking."

The film features Thobani Nzuza, Mbulelo Radebe, Omega Mncube, Siya Xaba, Zenzo Msomi and Nduduzo Khowa with cinematography by Jared Hinde and score by award-winning composer, West-African born George Acogny.

The Luxor award forms part of an expanding international festival journey that includes selections at the Joburg Film Festival, the Durban International Film Festival, and the Zanzibar International Film Festival.

Now, after travelling internationally, God's Work returns home for its first commercial theatrical engagement.

South African audiences will have just seven days, from 10 -16 July, to experience one of the country's most internationally acclaimed independent films at Ster-Kinekor Cinema Nouveau Rosebank.

Spirits and Spaces - Experimental Short Film by Gabriella Blumberg inspired by Roger Ballen Book

An experimental short film Spirits and Spaces, inspired by  the book of the same name by world-renowned photographer and artist Roger Ballen - his first publication in colour- enters the strange psychological terrain that defines the Ballenesque: a world that is chaotic, absurd, and deeply subconscious.

Now available to view on YouTube, the film was created as a companion artwork to the book, and directed by Gabriella Blumberg, with director of photography Gavin Pincus and creative director Marguerite Rossouw. Spirts and Spaces unfolds as a journey through a transitional interior world of rooms and spaces.

In it, a lone spirit awakens in a coffin and wanders through a sequence of 6 rooms inspired by chapters from Ballen’s book, each embodying a distinct state, as the walls breathe, shadows detach, and the world erupts into chaos around him - transforming the photographic themes into living spaces.

“Creating Spirits and Spaces felt more like making a documentary than a work of fiction - as though placing a camera within the mind of Roger Ballen,” says Blumberg. “The film invites viewers to step beyond the surface of each photograph and inhabit its liminal space.”

“This is the first photographic book and film in my long career of nearly six decades that I have expressed my world in colour,” says Ballen. “This place should be viewed not as a location that is real versus unreal, but as an uncanny spot that exists somewhere in each of our minds. Upon  viewing the film and images you will be unclear as to if whether and when you have ever been to this Ballenesque universe.”

“We are thrilled to launch the film on YouTube alongside the release of the book, allowing audiences immediate access to experience both works in dialogue with one another. Presented simultaneously, the film and book encourage us to engage with the project as a unified and immersive experience,” says Blumberg.

The film is available to watch on Youtube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2GSaneIPu8

Spirits and Spaces is published by Thames & Hudson and is available on Amazon worldwide and Takealot in SA on https://www.takealot.com/roger-ballen-spirits-and-spaces/PLID97154473

The Durban FilmMart Institute (DFMI) announces the project selection for the annual DFM Pitch and Finance Forum 2026

Thirty-six African film projects have been selected for the 17th Durban FilmMart Africa’s leading film finance and co-production market that will now take place from 9 to 12 October, in Durban, South Africa.

The market will present an array of projects, including 8 animation, 10 fiction features, 10 documentary features and 7 series projects in development at the Pitch and Finance Forum alongside a robust industry programme which will focus on current trends, innovations, and challenges faced by the industry.

"Our stories are our voices; they represent our culture, our history, our joy, our pain and our victories.  DFM is honoured to present a unique selection of African stories that will add to the successes that have gone before," says Magdalene Reddy, DFMI director. "We look forward to following the journey of these projects for years to come, as we do with all our project alumni. The DFM provides an important platform, not only to showcase the creative work of filmmakers but also to support them in building a cross-continental community, creating networks and access

The 36 selected projects will be given the opportunity to prepare for their participation at DFM with online one-on-one mentorship by leading industry experts to ensure that they are collaborator- and investor-ready when they get to Durban for the in-person pitch.

The 8 animation projects will receive additional support from industry experts through participation in the Digital Lab Africa (DLA) programme presented by DFM partner, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct.

The 2026 DFM Official Projects:

Animated Series - Fiction               

Beast Seeker             

Producer: Danielle Retief

Director: Robyn Viljoen

South Africa               

                       

capoZOOeira             

Producers: Mary Waweru Wanjiku, Carlos Zerpa Bravo

Director: Orlymar Paredes

Kenya, Brazil

           

Hadu: The Series                   

Producer: Damilola Solesi

Director: Precious Anih

Nigeria           

                       

JUJU SOCCER                     

Producers: Oge Obasi, Somto Ajuluchukwu

Director: C.J. Obasi

Nigeria           

                       

Nerve             

Producer: Raffaella Delle Donne, coproducer: Renee Van Reenen

Director: Tshepo Moche

South Africa               

                       

Sunday Morning                    

Producer: Nahom Abiy

Director: Minasie Terefe

Ethiopia                      

                       

Animated Short - Fiction                

In Her Hands             

Producer: Gehad El Akhal

Director: Hagar Basiony

Egypt              

                       

Animated - Feature length fiction              

MIDNIGHT METRO               

Producer: Wako Sefara

Director: Lesego Vorster

South Africa               

Fiction Features

A touch of Paradise

Producer: Sarra Ben Hassen

Director: Houcem Slouli

Tunisia

Arbaa Shuhuor wu Ashara Ayam (Four Months and Ten Days)

Producer: Alsamoual Hussein

Director: Alyaa Musa

Sudan

Fairway to Freedom

Producer: Tarina Patel

Director: Jahmil Qubeka

South Africa

HOLY COW (selected at El Gouna 2025 through partnership)

Producer and Director: Asmae el Moudir

Morocco

MIETA

Producer: Neil Brandt

Director: Carla Fonseca Mokgata

South Africa

MOTHER THERESA

Producer: Shema Faustin

Director: Mutiganda wa Nkunda

Rwanda

Taht El Sama El Khadra' (Under Green Skies)

Producer: Yara Goubran

Director: Jad Chahine

Egypt

The Boy Who Spoke Static

Producer: Mathew Cerf

Director: The Agbajowo Collective

Nigeria

Vino Amargo (Bitter Wine)

Producer: David Franciscus

Director: Pablo Pinedo Bóveda

South Africa

Waslap (selected through DFM ACCESS)

Producer and Director: Batandwa Alperstein

South Africa

Fiction Series

AGAIN

Producer: Giresse Kassonga

Director: Erickey Bahati

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Daddies

Producer: Cati Weinek

Director: Sean Mongie

South Africa

Fafi

Producer and Director: Dominique Jossie

South Africa

FISI (HYENA)

Producer: Mkamzee Mwatela

Director: Sanele Zulu

Kenya

Smoke & Mirrors

Producer: Luke Rous

Director: Jozua Malherbe

South Africa

The Coven (selected through DFM ACCESS)

Producer and Director: Sihle Mthembu

South Africa

Documentary Series

Children of the Nile

Producer and Director: Tina Obo

Uganda

Documentary Features

Banat aljazira alkhadra' (GREEN ISLAND'S GIRLS)

Producer: Amrosh Badr

Director: Rogena Tarek

Egypt

DESIGNING DIVIDE (selected at Talents Durban 2025)

Producer and Director: Jessie Ayles

South Africa

Gwijo Nation

Producer: Quinton Fredericks

Director: Sesihle Manzini

South Africa

LE FIL ET LE MUR (THE THREAD AND THE WALL)

Producer and Director: Mouni Boullam

Algeria, France

MA NUIT DU DJOMELE (My Djomele Night)

Producer: Hicham Falah

Director: Barkima Nafissatou Laguempedo

Burkina Faso

Majuto si Mjukuu (Heirs of no Regret)

Producer: Mumo Liku

Director: Saitabao Kaiyare

Kenya

MDANTSANE – HOME OF BOXING (selected through DFM ACCESS)

Producer and Director: Phumlani Veto

South Africa

The Ones With The Tempered Flowers

Producer: Ivy Kiru

Director: Neema Ngelime

Tanzania

Urban Zulu: The Busi Mhlongo Story

Producer: Struan Douglas, coproducer: Vusi Mchunu

Director: Rehad Desai

South Africa

Waiting for Evolution

Producer and director: Karin Slater

South Africa

WHERE DO I BELONG?

Producer: Talal Afifi

Director: Ibrahim “Snoopy” Ahmed

Sudan

More information on this year’s theme can be found on the Durban FilmMart Institute’s website, https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/ 

Delegate registration and programme details will be announced in due course.

The 17th edition Durban FilmMart is funded by the Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, Ford Foundation, the National Film and Video Foundation and IEFTF.

South African Film God’s Work awarded prestigious prize at Luxor African Film Festival

The South African feature film God’s Work, directed by Michael James and produced by Sithabile Mkhize was awarded the prestigious Radwan El Kashef Prize for Best Film Addressing an African Issue (Silver Mask of Tutankhamun) at The Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt last week.

“The Radwan El Kashef Prize for the Best Film addressing an African issue is not granted annually, but only when the High Committee decides that a particular film deserves this special honour, marking it as a distinction reserved for truly exceptional works that embody both artistic excellence and deep engagement with African realities,” says Festival Director Ms Azza El Husseiny.

The prize is named after Egypt’s pioneering independent filmmaker Radwan El Kashef (1952–2002), and symbolizes cinema that elevates marginalized voices with empathy and poetic depth. The film was honoured for “its powerful artistic vision and its sincere exploration of African identity and collective struggle.”

The award was presented to the director, Michael James by Dr Hossam El-Mandouh El-Husseini, Egyptian Member of Parliament, in recognition of the enduring cultural ties between Egypt and Africa and the festival’s role as a platform for creative dialogue across the continent.

Reflecting on the honour, director Michael James said: “Receiving this award on behalf of the film, and all involved is deeply humbling. This award affirms the importance of telling African stories with honesty and empathy, and I hope God’s Work continues to contribute to the ongoing dialogue around affirming the humanity of the homeless community."

Sithabile Mkhize commented, “This award is especially important because it acknowledges one of the central intentions of the film, which is to use the power of cinema to build bridges across humanity."

“This recognition is a powerful validation of the collaborative effort behind God’s Work,” says Executive Producer Toni Monty. “It highlights the strength of African filmmaking and the importance of creating platforms where our stories can resonate globally. We are proud to see the film stand alongside works that embody both artistic excellence and social relevance.”

The film is supported by the Durban Film Office, KZN Tourism and Film, The National Film and Video Foundation, and co-produced with Amafrika Films and Mojo Entertainment. 

SA Film GOD’S WORK selected for Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt 

The South African film GOD’S WORK, directed and written by Michael James, and produced by Sithabile Mkhize, will have its Middle East and North Africa  premiere in the Long Film Competition at the 15th Luxor African Film Festival in Egypt from 30 March to 5 April.

GOD’S WORK which had its South African premiere at the Durban International Film Festival last year, screened to sold-out houses, and critical acclaim, and is due to be screened at the Joburg Film Festival on Sunday 8 March.

Mbulelo Radebe, Thobani Nzuza and Siya Xaba in God's Work directed by Michael James and  produced by Sithabile Mkhize.

The film is set in Durban where a group of unhoused men are surviving on the society’s margins in a dilapidated building that offers a fragile sanctuary. They are  bound by quiet loyalty. The audience is drawn into their personal journeys as they  navigate a world of indifferent authorities, opportunists, and looming violence. It is their  inner worlds - woven from memories, visions, and ghosts - that hold reality as vivid as the one they fight to live through.

Director Michael James describes the film as an act of bearing witness; and one which forces us to question our understanding and relationships with  unhoused people.

Thobani Nzuza in God's Work directed by Michael James and produced by Sithabile Mkhize.

The film features Thobani Nzuza, Mbulelo Radebe, Omega Ncube, Siya Xaba, Zenzo Msomi and Nduduzo Kholwa with cinematography by Jared Hinde and score by award-winning composer, West-African born George Acogny.

GOD’S WORK is written and directed by Michael James, and Produced by Sithabile Mkhize (SA), Co-Produced by Marco Orsini (USA), Executive Produced by Toni Monty (SA) and Gary Springer (USA). A Maverick Resistance production in association with the KwaZulu-Natal Film and Tourism Authority, the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa, Amafrika Films, and Mojo Entertainment LLC, supported by the Durban Film Office.

For the trailer, press notes and additional information visit the website at: https://www.godsworkthefilm.com/ and follow on social media: Facebook: @godsworkthefilm Instagram: godsworkthefilm

Umfula - Echoes of the River making an impact in Communities along the Mfolozi River

A Virtual Reality (VR) film Umfula - Echoes of the River , created by VR Capture and directed by Ballito-based Telmo dos Reis has been touring communities along the Mfolozi River in KwaZulu-Natal as part of the filmmakers’ aim to raise awareness about environmental conservation of this historic waterway.

The film takes viewers on a virtual reality journey along the river, highlighting its beauty, ecological significance, and the threats it faces. It offers a highly sensory experience of life on the river.

The screenings were recently held in various communities along the uMfolozi starting from its source in Vryheid northern KwaZulu-Natal and culminating at Isimangaliso Wetland Park including Nzamangamandla (Nongoma), Hlabisa, Somkhele, Sokhulu and St Lucia.

“We held these screenings over several weeks in February and March, with each community event serving as a platform for education, engagement, and dialogue about environmental conservation,” explains dos Reis. “Our goal was to raise awareness about environmental conservation while also creating job opportunities for local residents through the events. The project aimed to employ at least 33 people over this period, however, due to careful budgeting, they were able to employ around 60 people, providing some economic support to the communities.”

The screenings were made possible through a grant from PESP4 (Presidential Employment Stimulus Package) and the National Film and Video Foundation, and a collaborative effort between production company VR Capture and local community leaders. The community leaders who worked on the film represented the project as event hosts for their respective areas.

Producer Cheryl Tuckett from Light and Lion, reports that the screenings had a profound impact on the communities. “This was not only in terms of raising awareness of the challenges the river faces and the importance of clean freshwater but also in reigniting a pride in and ownership of their natural resources,” she says.  “The events were attended by a diverse audience, including local residents, community leaders, and environmental activists, who all came together to celebrate the beauty of the Mfolozi River and discuss ways to protect it.”

‘We did not just want to show the film in the communities we worked with during the making of it,” says dos Reis. ‘We wanted to use the opportunity to empower communities through fostering a sense of environmental stewardship. Through this project, we hope to inspire others to take action and protect our planet's precious natural resources.”

Umfula - Echoes of the River by VR Capture was made with the support of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Film Commission,  the National Film and Video Foundation, PESP4, and Light and Lion, providing development and funding for the production and community screenings of the film. 



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Realness Announces Participants for Second Edition of Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy

Nine female film industry professionals from Africa have been selected to participate in the second edition of the Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy – a dynamic and innovative film industry development programme presented by Realness Institute in partnership with the Locarno Film Festival and with the support of The Story Board Collective.

The programme aims to support, upskill and network young film professionals working in distribution and sales, festival programming, theatrical exhibition, and other related sectors of the industry.

Participants of the 2023 Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy : Tope l-r: Lerato Bokako (South Africa), Nozipho Swelindawo (South Africa),  Abulele Njisane (South Africa), Middle l-r: Anga Mqingwana (South Africa), Khanyisile Zondi (South Africa), Lucinda Van de Rheede (South Africa), Bottom L-R: Seggen Mikael (Eritrea/ Germany), Taryn Joffe (South Africa), Victoria Ogar (Nigeria) 

The participants are:

Abulele Njisane (South Africa) - lecturer in Cinema Studies at the School of Arts, Media and Cultural Studies department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

Lerato Bokako (South Africa) – film festival programmer and features writer.

Taryn Joffe (South Africa) - Festival Programmer and Industry Coordinator at Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, curator and writer. 

Anga Mqingwana (South Africa) -producer with Big World Cinema team in Cape Town as a Production and Distribution Co-ordinator.

Khanyisile Zondi (South Africa)- founder of Sinema Agency, a start-up specialising in film marketing, public relations, and distribution.

Nozipho Swelindawo (South Africa) - founder and co-director of Mbudu Community Art Centre. 

Victoria Ogar (Nigeria) - film account manager at Filmone Entertainment 

Lucinda Van de Rheede (South Africa) - entrepreneur, writer and freelance line producer and researcher.

Seggen Mikael (Eritrea/ Germany) - freelance cultural manager, programmer and writer, Film Festival Programmer at DOK.fest Munich and Industry Programmer at the European Film Market (Berlinale).

"We are thrilled to witness the Academy gearing up for this year’s edition during the highly anticipated FAME Week,” says Markus Duffner, Head of Locarno Pro, and Marion Klotz, Industry Academy Project Manager. “We love that all the selected participants are women, as the global film industry requires more female voices to be heard. We believe that this initiative will help propel young professionals into the vibrant tapestry of the local and international film industry network. We look forward to the transformative impact it will have on the next generation of filmmakers.”

“We believe this to be one of our most necessary industry initiatives,” says Elias Ribeiro co-founder and Executive Director of Realness Institute and Regional Manager of Locarno Southern Africa Industry Academy. “Before producers can deliver their content to African audiences through established and profitable distribution avenues on a large scale, we will remain dependent on the North structures. Our content is also worth less than in its primary market, where it is most relevant. The emergence of solid distribution operations is urgent and costly, so we need to innovate while we develop and build.”

The Locarno Southern Africa Industry Academy takes place during FAME Week Africa in Cape Town, South Africa from 3 to 9 September this year. FAME Week Africa is a growing platform for the development and networking of the creative industries on the continent.

"In the heart of MIP Africa at FAME Week Africa, the Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy emerges as a transformative platform, empowering African film professionals to unlock their potential,” says Martin Hiller, Portfolio Director: FAME Week Africa. “Through mentorship, networking, and curated programming, we pave the way for their journey into the global entertainment industry, celebrating diverse voices and captivating stories that will shape the future of African cinema.”

The participants will be given the opportunity to network with global experts, attend masterclasses, workshops, and panel discussions. They will also contribute to curating the short film programme, under the mentorship of Academy alumnus Lyse Nsengiyumva (Rwanda) which will be showcased at The Labia Cinema in Cape Town from 7 to 9 September and will feature conversations with high-profile filmmakers and Q & A’s.

“As an alumnus of the first edition of the Academy, I’m thrilled and honoured to be part of this prestigious programme again, this time around as an artistic director of the Short Film Festival,” says Nsengiyumva. “I will be working closely with these professionals to curate a balanced and vibrant programme that promises to resonate with audiences. It is an extraordinary privilege to be involved with the Realness Institute which has been unwavering in its support of African cinema.

 

Victoria Ogar (Nigeria) says that she is looking forward to meeting new people, learning about new cultures through the films, and having a fulfilling experience.”The sheer magnitude of having to consider the films submitted at the festivals through a selection process to explore the audience's potential and satisfaction will be a lifetime achievement for my career growth in the film space."

“I hope to gain a  wider valuable network of African film professionals and that the programme will empower us to promote African cinema globally and elevate its presence on the international stage,” says Seggen Mikael (Eritrea/ Germany).

Khanyisile Zondi (South Africa) looks forward to gaining insights into distribution through the Academy to help affirm her vision to contribute towards the development of film in Africa: “My aspirations for the distribution industry revolve around fostering an inclusive ecosystem and leveraging technology to facilitate easier access for filmmakers across the continent to sales agents, aggregators, and distribution networks.”

Many mentors and experts will be supporting these young professionals in looking for systems and innovations in this distribution sector including amongst others Dennis Ruh (European Film Market Director), Pamela Bienzobas (Locarno Film Festival - member of the feature film selection committee), Lyse Nsengiyumva (International Film Festival Rotterdam Programmer), Constanza Arenas (Luz Agency and Marketing Expert), Sydelle Willow Smith (Sunshine Cinema), Claire Diao (Sudu Connexion) and Elias Ribeiro.

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CineFAM SOUTH AFRICA SHORT FILM CHALLENGE AT DIFF AND DFM

Media Release

CineFAM SOUTH AFRICA SHORT FILM CHALLENGE AT DIFF AND DFM

CaribbeanTales International Film Festival, in partnership with Sisters Working in Film and Television (SWIFT), invites South African women filmmakers to participate in the inaugural CineFAM South Africa Short Film Challenge. The CineFAM South Africa Short Film Challenge aims to create opportunities to garner international recognition and global distribution and is presented at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) (13 to 23 July) and the Durban FilmMart (DFM) (14 to 17 July).

SWIFT is a newly formed organization that aims to advance the participation of women in the South African audio-visual sector. CaribbeanTales is a group of companies that produces, markets, and sells Caribbean-themed film and television content for global audiences. It includes CaribbeanTales Inc. a registered Charity based in Toronto, Canada; the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival (CTFF) which takes place annually in Toronto in September; the renowned CaribbeanTales Incubator Program, a development and production hub for original Caribbean content; CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution (CTWD), the largest full-service distribution entity dedicated to the monetisation of Caribbean content; CaribbeanTalesFlix, our production arm, and CaribbeanTales-TV, a video on demand platform.

 The CineFAM South Africa Short Film Challenge aims to create an opportunity for female South African filmmakers to collaborate and establish creative relationships that stimulate the growth of content made by women. The challenge also aims to connect South African filmmakers with those in the Diaspora as well as a global audience.

SWIFT will present a preparatory workshop on no-budget filmmaking at the Durban FilmMart on Monday, July 17 from 12:30pm to 2pm at the Tsogo Sun Maharani Hotel. This workshop will provide participants with useful tools for making a short film with constraints in time, budget and other resources.  This is a free workshop and no bookings are necessary.

Following the workshop (which is not mandatory to enter the Challenge), the CineFAM South Africa Short Film Challenge will take place from 19-23 July and will be open to teams with the roles of writer, director and producers filled by women and queer filmmakers from South Africa. The theme from the challenge will be announced on 18 July on the CaribbeanTales website www.caribbeantales-tv.com and the teams will have five days to write, shoot and edit a film of no longer than 5 minutes. Entering teams need to feature female identifying crew in the key positions of writer, director and producer.

Completed films must be uploaded by no later than Sunday, 23 July at midnight (GMT +2) on the CaribbeanTales website. Teams unable to upload the films for submission, from their own internet connections, should contact cinefamza@gmail.com on the first day of the challenge to make arrangements for submission.

A shortlist of up to ten short films will be selected and posted on the CT website for online voting. The challenge will recognize three winning films including best story, best direction and audience choice. Two of these films will be given their World Premiere Screening at the CaribbeanTales International Film Festival and all will be given the opportunity to acquire distribution by CTWD.

“We are very excited to be collaborating with both SWIFT and Caribbean Tales on this initiative and hope it will lay the foundation for more cooperation between filmmakers on the continent and those from the Diaspora,” says Toni Monty of the Durban FilmMart.

 “South Africa is a natural partner to CaribbeanTales, and we are thrilled by the opportunity to provide a platform for women filmmakers. CineFAM, meaning “films by women” in Haitian Creole, is a global initiative of ours through which we spotlight to crucial voices of women in film.  We couldn’t be more delighted to continually expand the horizons for the kind of stories that we can tell,” says Frances-Anne Solomon, founder and CEO of CaribbeanTales.

Speaking on behalf of SWIFT Sara Blecher said “Short films are brilliant ways that filmmakers and their projects can get noticed. There are countless examples of how short films are precursors for feature films. We hope that through this process, women filmmakers are driven to create work that will start a process of getting recognition, attention and support to further develop their body of work.”

“We are delighted that this new programme to encourage South African filmmakers to take the short film challenge during the festival focuses on women in line with the Women Led Film theme for this year’s festival,” says Chipo Zhou, DIFF manager. “We look forward to seeing the creative results and perhaps seeing some of these films in our festival in the future.”

For more information, contact cinefamza@gmail.com .  For more information about the DIFF go to www.durbanfilmfest.co.za and for the DFM go to www.durbanfilmmart.com.

 

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South African film, The Wound to open the Panorama programme of the Berlin International Film Festival

South African film, The Wound to open the Panorama programme of the Berlin International Film Festival

South Africa / Germany / Netherlands / France

By John Trengove

European premiere

 

Just after celebrating its selection to have its world premiere in competition at the Sundance Film festival in the USA, the film-makers of the South African film The Wound, have received news that the film has been selected to open the Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama section in February 2017.

 

Produced by Urucu Media, directed by John Trengove and co-written by Trengove, Thando Mgqolozana and Malusi Bengu , The Wound stars multi-talented musician and novelist, Nakhane Touré in his acting debut, with Bongile Mantsai and Niza Jay Ncoyini.

 

The Wound tells the story Xolani, a lonely Xhosa factory worker who joins the men of his community in the mountains of the Eastern Cape to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood. When a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best kept secret, Xolani's entire existence begins to unravel.

 

Speaking from Cape Town, producer Elias Ribeiro said “We could not have wished for a stronger start for The Wound. We will have the spotlight in the two top festivals in North America and Europe, and that bodes well for its future, as Pyramide, our International Sales Agents will be representing the film at their booth inside the European Film Market in Berlin in February.”

 

The Berlin International Film Festival website describes the Panorama programme as a showcase of “new films by renowned directors, debut films and new discoveries. The selection of films provides insight on new directions in art house cinema. Traditionally, Auteur Films – movies with an individual signature – form the heart of the programme, and aims to take quality independent film out of its niche into the spotlight of the international market.”

 

“The fabrication of masculinity has long been a consistent theme in Panorama,” said the statement from the festival. “Producer Elias Ribeiro previously delighted festival audiences in Panorama 2015 with Necktie Youth.”

 

John Trengove commented: “I was interested in what happens when groups of men come together and organize themselves outside of society and the codes of their everyday lives. I wanted to show the intense emotional and physical exchanges that are possible in these spaces and how repressing strong feelings leads to a kind of toxicity and violence. As an outsider to this culture, it was important that I approach this story from the perspective of characters who are themselves outsiders, who struggle to conform to the status quo of which they are part.”

 

The Wound is a co-production between South Africa, Germany, The Netherlands and France and was shot on location in the northern region of South Africa. The film was developed with the assistance of The Hubert Bals Fund and ARTE International Prize. The Department of Trade and Industry and The National Film and Video Foundationas well as The World Cinema Fund supported production and the film pre-sold to broadcasters ARTE France and ZDF in Germany. The film’s intended release in South Africa is July 2017.

 

For more information about The Wound, visit www.urucumedia.com/thewound

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Sharlene Versfeld

Versfeld & Associates

Public Relations and Communications

Email: sharlene@versfeld.co.za

Twitter: sharlvers

Website: www.versfeld.co.za

 

Memorial for award-winning Durban filmmaker Junaid Ahmed - December 14 at 7pm

Memorial for award-winning

Durban filmmaker Junaid Ahmed

The family and friends of the award-wining Durban film-maker Junaid Ahmed who passed away on November 1 this year, extend a warm invitation to all who knew him to join them in a celebration of his life at the Suncoast Cinecentre on Wednesday, December 14 at 7pm. 

Born in Durban in 1959 Junaid went to Southlands High School and graduated from the University of Durban Westville in the 1980’s with BA (Honours) degree in Drama.

Junaid’s passion was always in the creative industries and he had a varied and prolific career in the arts.  He produced, workshopped, acted in and directed many theatre productions at various community venues including the Asoka Theatre, the Market Theatre and at the National Arts Arts Festival. He also wrote and directed the acclaimed musical, Bombay Crush, which starred well-known SA actress Kajal Bagwandeen.

A former board member of the National Interim Film Fund Board (now the National Film and Video Foundation), the international award winning director and producer also had a string of successful film projects to his name. His short film highlights include directing The Vow for Miramax and Channel 4 Films. He also produced the short film Lucky, which was screened at over 80 international festivals in 2006 and was nominated for the 2006 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Best Short film award, and it won Best Short Film at over 40 international film festivals.

He directed the feature film More Than Just A Game for which Sony Pictures International (SPI) acquired the international distribution rights and was broadcast in over 40 countries. Together with Helena Spring, Junaid was, at the time of his death, producing a slate of nine films supported by the NFVF. The first of these - Hard To Get opened the 2014 Durban International Film Festival, and was released in cinemas later that year. Then in February this year their co-produced film Happiness is a Four Letter Word  (with Khanyi Mbau, Renate Stuurman and Mmabatho Montsho in lead roles) was the best performing film of all new releases, in South Africa on its opening weekend. They were currently working on their next film Keeping up with the Kandasamys directed by Durban’s Jayan Moodley, which is in post-production.

Prior to his filmmaking career, he spent ten years as the secretary general of the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) for some time, he edited poetry anthologies and his articles on arts and culture related issues were published in a number of international publications. 

He is survived by his wife Liza, sons Tariq and Jarred and daughter Taegen.

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The Wound to Make World Premiere at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival

The Wound to Make World Premiere at the

2017 Sundance Film Festival

Johannesburg, South Africa — The Wound, a film by by John Trengove, will make its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Film Festival takes place January 19-29 with screenings in Park City, Salt Lake City and at Sundance Mountain Resort, Utah. The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Boyhood, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, The End of the Tour, Little Miss Sunshine, Reservoir Dogs, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious and Napoleon Dynamite.

The Wound tells the story Xolani, a lonely Xhosa factory worker who joins the men of his community in the mountains of the Eastern Cape to initiate a group of teenage boys into manhood. When a defiant initiate from the city discovers his best kept secret, Xolani's entire existence begins to unravel.

The Wound was co-written by John Trengove, Thando Mgqolozana and Malusi Bengu and produced by Urucu Media. It stars multi-talented musician and novelist, Nakhane Touré in his first ever film-role, alongside Bongile Mantsai and Niza Jay Ncoyini. It was shot entirely in South Africa with an all-male Xhosa cast.

"What a privilege to have worked with this fearless cast and insanely talented team of collaborators. I am so grateful for the many Xhosa men who contributed in big ways and small ways, and, miraculously, trusted me to make this film. Whatever comes next, we made The Wound with our eyes and hearts wide open," says Trengove.

The Wound is a co-production between South Africa, Germany, The Netherlands and France and was shot on location in the northern region of South Africa. The film was developed with the assistance of The Hubert Bals Fund and ARTE International Prize. The Department of Trade and Industry and The National Film and Video Foundation supported production and the film presold to broadcasters ARTE France and ZDF in Germany. International Sales will is handled by Pyramide in Paris. The film’s intended release in South Africa is July 2017.

This is John Trengove’s debut feature film.

For more information about The Wound, visit www.urucumedia.com/thewound

 

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Applications are now open for the Realness Pan African Scriptwriting Residency 2017

Media Release

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE REALNESS PAN AFRICAN SCRIPTWRITING RESIDENCY 2017

Following the success of the inaugural scriptwriting residency, Realness is thrilled to announce the call for submissions for the 2017 edition.

Realness is a pioneering residency that provides filmmakers with the opportunity to hone and develop their creative scriptwriting skills. It serves to address the need for promising African film projects to be supported in their development phase to be able to realistically compete in global film markets.

This year five filmmakers - Amirah Tajdin (Kenya), Hiwot Admasu (Ethiopia) Luck Razanajaona (Madagascar), Sheetal Magan (South Africa) and Wim Steytler (South Africa) spent six weeks at the Nirox Artists’ Residency in the Cradle of Humankind under the mentorship of script consultants Selina Ukwuoma and Nadja Dumouchel, including attending the Durban FilmMart and Talent Campus at the Durban International Film Festival. 

 

“The success of this residency is not only evident in the encouraging feedback from the participants, who welcomed the opportunity to be in a quiet headspace to tap into their creative sources, but it is also evident in the numerous awards they have received and the progress made following the residency,” explains Elias Ribeiro, Creative Director of Realness. “Luck, for example, had a project selected for the Durban FilmMart prior to the residency, where we met and worked with participants as a precursor to programme. Here he walked off with awards from CineMart (International Film Festival Rotterdam) and the International Organisation of La Francophonie to further develop his script. Hiwot has since won an award to participate at another residency programme in Switzerland the Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, and two of the projects have signed co-production agreements since completing the residency.”

 

As a result of the Realness programme, Ribeiro has,been invited to present the initiative at five major international festivals since starting it earlier this year, namely Berlinale, Cannes, Locarno, Venice and Torino. “The continued interest is very encouraging and serves as a platform for the residents to maintain the momentum towards getting their films made. We have structured Realness in a very holistic and strategic way, engaging with heavy-weight partners and advisors in developing the framework for the programme. It is rewarding to see the genuine interest in developing synergy between African cinema and the rest of the world.”

 

Amirah Tajdin said “Realness made me realize that…time and space really does make all the difference during script writing.” Wim Steytler said that Realness gave him the courage to “throw my script and 8 months of work into the bin. I gained important insights into how to take my story from decent to good. After Realness my goal is to take the project from good to great.”

 

Realness is proud to announce that the partnerships established in 2016 will continue into the second edition, which means that the 2017 residents will also have the opportunity to further develop their projects through the awards offered by the Durban FilmMart, Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Torino Film Lab, Midpoint, EAVE and La Fabrique des Cinema du Monde.

 

The submission window opens on 28 November 2016 and closes on 31 January 2017:

Applicants must submit ONE PDF dossier containing:

• a motivation for wanting to participate in REALNESS (1 page)

• a synopsis of the proposed feature project (1 page)

• a narrative treatment of the proposed feature project (6 pages)

• a draft of the screenplay (if available)

• a writer's note of intention (1 page)

• a short biography (1 paragraph)

• two links to samples of previously produced work, uploaded to vimeo. If selected, residents will be required to donate one copy of their previous work to the Nirox film library.

The call is open to screenwriters from across the African continent and selection will be based on artistic merit. REALNESS will hold no legal claim over the work once the residency is completed.

 

All submitted material must be in English. A committee appointed by the Realness team and their partners will read the project entries and conduct interviews with a shortlist of candidates in April. The REALNESS selection will be announced at an event hosted by the pavilion Les Cinemas du Monde in Cannes, 2017.

 

Dossiers must be submitted to realness@urucumedia.com. For further information and to download the application form go to www.urucumedia.com/realness.