The inaugural edition of the Cape Town International Film Market and Festival marks a milestone for the industry in the Mother City. Long without a flagship festival event, Cape Town’s industry can truly benefit from this event if the various elements within the industry can work together to further develop and expand its reach.
The industry in the Cape, despite being a multi-million rand a year business, is still extremely fractured and not quite sure of its place within the country, continent and globally. Long known as a destination for foreign productions, it is only more recently that local stories and productions are taking their rightful place.
The CTIFM&F has stated its key aim as collaboration, and this will be increasingly necessary in order to grow the event and its appeal to the industry as well as to the public at large. One of the roles the festival will also need to play is one of education – many people both in and out of the industry still have a lot to learn in terms of what an international festival entails, how films are selected, judged and awarded.
Additionally, the various elements of “the business” of film and content are not always understood even by role-players within the industry. The importance of networking and creating a strong base of production companies and allied services is critical to building Cape Town’s film industry. While this kind of business networking may not be as sexy as mingling with international buyers, it is the cornerstone of creating a long-term sustainable industry.
The CTIFM&F’s first annual expo in this regard was, therefore, a difficult sell to many who were expecting the typical buyer-seller market such as those at Durban International Film Festival and DISCOP. However, having started discussions with DISCOP earlier this year for collaborations and co-marketing support, it was clear that the CTIFM&F needed to establish its own niche that would benefit the industry without trying to replicate other models.
The expo, however, was just one element of the event that was highlighted by an incredible schedule of industry events and discussions. The 10 days of the event this past October was probably most successful in terms of this programme that created a space for dialogue, networking, and learning amongst industry professionals across spheres.
A diverse and very strategic schedule of master-classes, workshops and discussions put top experts on display to share local and international best practice. A stellar line-up included Oscar-winning Aron Warner (Shrek), Sharlto Copley, the Snake Nation collective from the USA, local animators Hilton Treves and Stuart Forrest and many many others.
Almost every session; from the hands-on session on Bitcoin that opened the festival to the final heated Couch Conversation discussion about sexual harassment in Hollywood and beyond, was well attended and produced amazing opportunities to learn and share.
Particularly encouraging was that students and young filmmakers were in attendance in abundance at these sessions. While a host of well known and more established professionals in the industry, were also around during the 10 days, it was really the younger generation of filmmakers that dominated the events and the discussions. Hence, the popularity in particular of the Snake Nation sessions. This collective of inspired creative and rebels is based in Atlanta, Georgia and Cape Town, and their insights into the future of content and collaboration where a highlight of the programme.
On the film side, the festival was a feast of international film. Billed as an international festival, the CTIFM&F succeeded in most areas, however, an area for significant improvement is the inclusion of films from across the continent. The festival had a major selection of films from the Nordic regions, and whilst many of these were powerful and beautiful films, the film line-up would have benefitted from more films from across Africa, with hardly any included in the line-up.
Encouraging in this regard is the initial commitment for collaboration between the CTIFM&F and the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) from 2018 that will see some of ZIFF’s award-winning African films screened at the festival.
South Africa was very well represented however with over a dozen feature and documentary films from SA, many of which had their World or African premieres at the festival. Some of the South African films were, in fact, the most popular and well-attended screenings, with packed houses for both Kagiso Lediga’s films, Catching Feelings (winner of the festival’s Best South African Feature Film), and Matwetwe.
Extremely powerful was also the hosting of the World Premiere of District Six: Rising from the Dust, a truly Cape Town story from director Weaam Willams. The inclusion of a host of films from Cape Town-based producers was also especially encouraging for the promotion of the local industry.
The CTIFM&F has vowed to increase its outreach to the various elements within the industry across Cape Town and South Africa – with their signing of partnerships with the Limpopo Film Commission held as an example of the kind of cross-provincial collaboration required to grow the entire industry.
The expansion of the expo to truly include all of the industry support and allied industries, as well as an increased focus on South African and African films, will be important elements for the growth and success of the festival.
Already a lot of these pieces are in place to develop a festival that is representative of the multitude of voices that make up Cape Town’s film industry, and although one event can never adequately represent the local industry in its entirety, the CTIFM&F is starting a journey that can, in the long run, be a powerful and beneficial one for the entire industry.
