Contributor

The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has committed additional investment of R177-million for feature films, documentaries and television series productions, it announced on Sunday.

The IDC has invested more than R330 million in local productions and co-production feature films since 2001.
It funded the Oscar-winning ‘Tsotsi’ to the tune of R12 million.

“The success of Tsotsi is exactly the kind of result the IDC has been aiming for,” read a statement released at the Tsotsi team’s celebratory welcome at Johannesburg International Airport.

“It’s a locally conceived, written, directed and produced film that features our own stars,” said chief executive Geoffrey Qhena.
“This certainly gives us encouragement to continue to support local film projects.”
News extraced from Sapa

The worlds first feature film, SMS Sugar Man, shot exclusively on Mobile phone cameras launched its website (www.smssugarman.com) on Friday 10 March.

Producer Michelle Wheatley: “The launch now of the website is in response to the unprecedented interest received by the film. The website will underpin the whole project; it is both a marketing medium and a distribution platform.”

The first short promo of SMS Sugar Man has been invited to premier at the Festival Cinema Africano Asia e America Latina, in Milano, Italy, on 22 March 06. It will be available exclusively at the same time on www.smssugarman.com.

The film is written and directed by Aryan Kaganof (www.kaganof.com). Executive Producers are Joel Phiri and Jeremy Nathan

The film will be distributed on a variety of media, on Mobile TV, the Internet, theatrical, television and DVD platforms, offering the public maximum access in innovative ways.

Still: Sugar Man and Grace (Leigh Graves)

Photo copyright: SMS Movies (Pty) Ltd

Sonny Irabor heads advisory board.

EX-AFRICAN MOVIE EXPO 2006(AMEX) announced today in Lagos,the appointment of Aremo Tope Babayemi as Festival Director of its 6th edition holding in Lagos from Wed July12-Saturday 15,2006.

It will be recalled that Tope Babayemi was Festival Director for the National Film Festival 2003.He was a founding member of the successful pop group UB40.Crown Prince Babayemi,an Oshun State born prince produces the Macmillan Literary and Nigeria Peace Festival amongst other arts development activities.Babayemi an M.Phil holder from University of Sheffield,UK is expected to infuse his creative energy into Africas premier video celebration.

In a related development,Madu.C.Chikwendu,CEO of African Movie Expo has confirmed the establishment of AMEX Advisory Board.The high pwered board is led by veteran broadcaster Mr Sonny Irabor and PR and Advertising guru Dapo Adelegan,Otunba Adebayo Salami,Mallam Abdulkareem Mohammed,Actress Eucheria Anunobi-Ekwu,Lilian Bach and Actor Zack Orji.

According to Madu.C.Chikwendu the high profile board and management is our answer to increased competition in the Nigerian festival environment.Our programme will highlight the value of our relentless participation in major world festivals like Berlin.

African Movie Expo will launch March ending with the presentation of the programme an the official mascot Kio the Camel.

Pixar Animation Studio has released its fourth-quarter financial results, declaring 2005 its most profitable year ever.

The Emeryville, California-based animation studio earned $152.9 million on revenues of $289.1 million, compared to earnings of $141.7 million on revenues of $273.5 million for the previous year.

Pixar is the creator of The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and A Bug’ Life. (Source – Animation Magazine Online)

Data for Internet broadband streaming and mobile media platform coverage of the Winter Olympics in Turin reveal a rapidly increasing acceptance of these new distribution mechanisms, especially among younger audiences.

In addition to the extensive and rich coverage of the Winter Games by the European Broadcast Union (EBU) members on free-to-air television, European broadband Internet users were able to watch a large selection of live and on-demand streams available on a number of EBU members’ and sub-licensees’ websites in a wide variety of languages. These included ORF (Austria); TV2 (Denmark); ETV (Estonia); France Télévisions (France); Eurosport, Wanadoo (France, UK); ARD and ZDF (Germany); RUV (Iceland); RAI (Italy); NPB (Netherlands); NRK (Norway); TVP (Poland); SVT (Sweden) SF, TSR and TSI (Switzerland); and, BBC and Tiscali (United Kingdom).

By the end of the Games over 23 million live and on-demand video streams had been distributed over the Internet, amounting to some 400 terabytes of moving-image data delivered. At peak times over 45 000 concurrent streams were being viewed by Internet users in more than 35 countries within the Eurovision territory. Content was delivered to more than 1 500 000 individual viewers across the Eurovision territory in more than 10 languages.

This extensive coverage was supplemented by a comprehensive offering of live and on-demand coverage over mobile media platforms. Through a wide range of sub-licensing and co-operation agreements with European mobile operators, moving image content of the Olympic Games was available in Belgium, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

The distribution of video over the Internet and on mobile platforms by EBU members and sub-licensees, which corresponded also to an express wish of the IOC, surpassed that of the Athens Games in 2004 after just four days of going online and proved that these additional offers meet the viewing habits of a new and young user group. With the provision of these additional services, which are complementary to the extensive television coverage, EBU members fulfilled their objective to make coverage of the Games available to the widest possible audience and as many groups of society as possible.

This marks one of the largest sports events, if not the largest, ever covered over broadband and mobile telecommunications platforms in Europe, allowing European viewers to complement their television viewing by watching the Games at a time and location of their choice.

For further information: email sports@eurovision.net.

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) will be held on 29 March in Johannesburg, at the offices of Webber Wentzel Bowens in Illovo from 11h30 to 14h00.

All feature film, broadcast, documentary, and short film producers are urged to attend the AGM as the election of the new Board will take place. Membership forms can be signed on arrival at the AGM – this is to enable those producers who are not already members, but who have specific interest, to join the organisation and state their special interests. Once the new Board is constituted, members will be able to join the various sub-committees.

Please RSVP to Denisha Pillay at info@theimaginarium.com, who has been seconded to the IPO for the purpose of organising the AGM. RSVPs are essential as catering numbers need to be concluded prior to 21 March.

IPO members in Cape Town and Durban may nominate candidates and register their votes online.

Physical address for AGM: Webber Wentzel Bowens Auditorium, 10 Fricker Road, Illovo Boulevard, Johannesburg.

The Real Life Documentary Film Festival, to be held from 20 to 26 May in Accra, Ghaha, inaugurates an annual film event dedicated to documentary films based on the histories, peoples, heroes, cities and locations of African and diasporic African communities.

This event will bring together filmmakers, scholars, students and film enthusiasts and aims to be the continent’s major initiative and forum for the production, cataloging and exhibition of documentary film records of African and African-diasporic subjects in global history.

The films to be exhibited are in such categories as: Africa-in all its regions, The African Diaspora, World Cinema, and Student Films. In addition to exhibiting documentaries by filmmakers from Africa and beyond, the festival will include a programme of student films, comprising of entries from Ghana’s National Film and Television Institute as well as those from other students worldwide, such as New York University, that portray Pan-African images.

The programme will also include an exhibition of photographic interpretations of Pan-African subjects by leading photographers. This festival will invite filmmakers as well as exhibitors engaged in the industries of producing and distributing films. Workshops by filmmakers and exhibitions by companies in the film business will complement the screenings. The events are open to the general public and seek to inspire young filmmakers and documentarians to address the arts, politics, and social issues of relevance to the Pan-African world. It hopes to promote awareness of and engagement with these concerns among African audiences at all levels – from schoolchildren through adults in all walks of life.

The festival inaugurates the West African Documentary Forum – a production, post production, archiving and scholarly organisation dedicated to producing and documenting knowledge on contemporary African and African diasporic issues through films. New York University initiates this project through its Africa House programme, Institute of African American Affairs, Tisch School of the Arts, and NYU in Ghana Institute in partnership with the University of Ghana and Ghana’s National Film and Television Institute.

For more information email laurene@ka-yelema.com or visit wwwrealifefestival@ka-yelema.com.

The Liquid Fridge, in partnership with rustpunk and endorsed by Creative Commons South Africa, presents ICEBOX 02 – an open, collaborative festival exploring the intersection of film, art, music and design in South African moving image.

ICEBOX aims to advance SA digital creativity, to forge a sense of community and common purpose amongst local artists, and to contribute to a shared archive of creative work, knowledge and experience.

The festival is calling for original SA-made moving image work in the categories of Narrative, Experimental / Design, Documentary, and Music Video. Entries have to be submitted in digital format on DVD or CD, but may incorporate any non-digital means, eg. claymation, stop-frame, charcoal on paper. Work by both established and emerging artists is welcomed. Innovation is the main criterion, whether through creative use of technology or a storyline with a twist.

ICEBOX actively promotes the use of open content licensing, both to spread awareness of the benefits of more flexible copyright, particularly in the African context, and to source material for the open content commons.

In 2006, ICEBOX will visit Cape Town and Durban, with Johannesburg and other locations to be confirmed. Coinciding with the screenings, we hope to host workshops and club nights with live audiovisual performances to further facilitate creative collisions of genres and artists.

Entry is free, and you may enter multiple films. Entry forms and online registration will be available when ICEBOX accepts submissions from 29 May 2006 to 18 August 2006. Entries selected for the festival will be promoted on our website and a festival DVD.

ICEBOX is currently looking for partners outside of Cape Town and Durban, as well as donors and sponsors.

For more information, please visit http://liquidfridge.co.za/icebox.

This year’s Animation Magazine Online Oscar Poll, held just prior to the Oscar event, saw Aardman Animations’ and DreamWorks Animation’s Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit win with 47% of the vote.

The claymation comedy from directors Nick Park and Steve Box, which went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, easily beat fellow leading vote getters Warner Bros.’ Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (33%) and Disney’s presentation of Studio Ghibli’s Howl’s Moving Castle (20%).

Though it did lukewarm theatrical and home video business in the US, the first-ever Wallace & Gromit feature was a huge hit outside the US. Prior to winning the Oscar, the film picked up a bevy of kudos this season, including the BAFTA for Best British Film. (Source – Animation Magazine Online)

Pixar Animation Studio has released its fourth-quarter financial results, declaring 2005 its most profitable year ever.

Said to be one of the hottest teen dramas to emerge from the United States in recent years, the series tells the tale of 17-year-old Veronica Mars, who spends her days studying at the local high school, but her nights working for her father, the town’s ex-Sheriff who now runs his own Private Investigator business. Which means that while Veronica may appear to be just another teenager in town, she in fact knows all the town’s dirty little secrets…

“When we saw the pilot episode, the first thing that struck the team was the important role of secrets in the series – how just about everyone has a ‘dirty little secret’. And we decided that we could use this central theme to really capture the imagination of the target audience, but in a really fresh and different manner,” says account director Candice Shortt.

So viewers have been invited to share their own secrets anonymously on a specially created blog site, vvv.tellveronicamars.com.

Viewers were driven to the site through a combination of above-the-line television, radio and print spots, as well as a viral email campaign and an SMS which was sent to the Student Village database. The message on all was essentially the same – “Everyone has a secret. What’s yours? www.tellveronicamars.com.”

The communication was purposefully not as overt as one might expect for the launch of a new television series, to ensure that it captured the attention of the hard-to-reach teen market – a market which enjoys communication that actively engages them as opposed to simply telling them what to think.

“We were very fortunate to be dealing with a client who trusts us, and who understood the necessity for doing something slightly different to attract the attention of this market,” says Shortt.

To date, the site has registered over 26 000 impressions, and the secrets just keep rolling in.