South Africa’s premier Wildlife Film Festival and Conference, Wild Talk Africa, will take place in Durban this year from 23 to 26 July, within the same month as the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) and the Durban FilmMart.
Wild Talk Africa initially launched in Durban in 2006 and has hosted successful editions in 2007, 2009 and 2011. The 2011 edition was held in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape.
The gathering of South African film industry events in Durban in July is aimed at working towards turning Durban’s “Golden Mile’ into the southern hemisphere’s own version of the prestigious and glamorous Cannes International Festival.
Like Cannes, Durban has the necessary infrastructure to handle a collaborative effort of this nature, with the added advantage of the warm water beaches, affordable hotels, convenient cinema complexes nearby and uShaka Marine World, which hosts the largest collection of West Indian Ocean species in the world. Post festival attractions include conveniently located game reserves, Kwa-Zulu Natal’s beautiful heritage sites and array of ocean activities.
Says Wild Talk Africa festival manager Shani van Straaten: “Wild Talk Africa is now firmly established as one of the world’s three top natural history conferences and the only one in Africa. We have added a new dimension to the current offerings with our focus on the growing scope of wildlife and natural history programming which includes expedition, adventure, human-animal interaction and environmental programming.
“The festival attracts filmmakers from across the world as well as experts in broadcast and technology, commissioning editors, conservationists and representatives in travel and tourism.’
In previous years both local and international broadcasters have attended the conference, including Animal Planet, National Geographic, Smithsonian Networks, Discovery Channel International, BBC, NHK Japan Broadcasting Corp, the SABC, e.tv and TopTV.
The world-renowned ROSCAR Awards (Rhino Oscars) is a highlight of the festival and presented to selected winning filmmakers for their outstanding contribution to advancing the understanding of our natural world. ROSCAR entries are judged by over 50 of the world’s leading industry experts and the award winners are announced at a high profile gala dinner that takes during the conference.
The ROSCAR trophy that was modelled on Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s logo, is an appropriate icon for this year’s theme, “Wild Talk Africa 2013: The Year of the Rhino’. In line with this theme, Wild Talk Africa will be supporting WESSA’s Rhino Fund through by donating 10% of sponsorship funds from the Roscar Award entries to WESSA.
Over and above the four-day conference programme, Wild Talk Africa delegates will have the opportunity to enjoy a variety of film premieres, lively networking parties and evening events.
For more information visit www.wildtalkafrica.com
