Durban International Film Festival Press

The Durban FilmMart, the continent’s leading film industry event, will host the inaugural Locations Africa Expo and Conference, an exciting and innovative new addition to this year’s 10^th edition which takes place from 19 to 22 July during the 40^th Durban International Film Festival (18 to 28 July) in Durban, South Africa.

Locations Africa, is a platform conceived in 2015 by Zesan Films and Events, and Martin Cuff Consulting as a marketing tool with an aim to increase the number of films shot in Africa, and to develop an economy around filming locations on the continent by creating employment opportunities and exposing these locations to the rest of the world.

This first Expo and Conference at the DFM and DIFF will focus on re-igniting efforts to position Africa and key filming destinations as being “open for business”, and where relevant, equipped with the various elements a filmmaker needs to consider before production. The Expo will showcase African filming locations, crew, various facilities and opportunities for co-producing, while the Conference will provide opportunities for filmmakers to unpack and discuss production and locations needs, opportunities and the possibilities that exist for filmmakers from within and without the continent.

“We are really delighted to welcome Locations Africa to the ever-growing industry offerings in our DFM programme, as we provide more opportunities for filmmakers to develop content, create films and drive a very lucrative economy around film,” says Toni Monty, head of the DFM. “This is a perfect opportunity for really network the continent across borders and inter-continentally as well.”

The four-day Expo will include representation and exhibition showcases from national and regional film commissions, government departments including South Africa’s Arts and Culture, Tourism, Trade and Industry as well as private sector film studios, locations management companies, set designs, crew and talent agencies, production teams, equipment businesses, music, SFX and post-production services.

The Conference will run over four days, with two to three engagement sessions a day. Sessions are titled Where We Are – Setting The Scene which is an introduction to the concept of a Locations Africa event, focusing on why this segment of the film industry is important, Sell The Dream which will look into the realities Locations Africa faces when promoting locations and services to international producers, Getting Involved, which will unpack training and awareness for new entrants into servicing and facilities management and Africa is Ready, which showcases through case studies, just how ready the industry is.

“Locations Africa has been over four years in the making with research from across the continent on the practicalities of physical production to ensure that our information through this expo, conference and web portal are as relevant and practical as possible,” says Azania Muendane, director of Locations Africa. “Africa is ready for business and we believe that through Locations Africa, this will grow. We are very excited to be in partnership with the DIFF and the DFM, as this is the perfect setting to introduce a focused engagement of physical production, Locations and facilities on our continent. We encourage more inter-country productions and inbound international productions to interface with us at Locations Africa online or at the expo for their location shoot needs.”

Locations Africa will take place at the Tsogo Sun, Elangeni Hotel in Durban from 19 to 22 July, and is open to all Durban FilmMart delegates.

For more information on Locations Africa email info@locationsafrica.com

As the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) gears up for its 40^th edition, eight programmers have been working tirelessly for four months to consolidate a strong programme for this major milestone in the history of film on the continent.

DIFF, organised by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, takes place this year from 18 to 28 July in venues around Durban, South Africa. It takes the record of being one of the oldest and largest festivals in Africa, presenting over 150 films, while also offering workshops, industry seminars, discussion forums and outreach activities that include screenings in townships areas, where cinemas are non-existent.

“In celebration of 40 years of DIFF, we are proud to reveal our strong line-up of programmers,” says DIFF Manager Chipo Zhou. “Our features panel includes Tsitsi Dangaremba (Zimbabwe), Gabrielle Kelly (USA), and Peter Machen (SA/Germany), the documentaries panel is made up of Theresa Hill (South Africa) and Nataleah Hunter-Young  (Canada); while the shorts panel comprises  Lisa Ogdie (USA), Fibby Kioria (Uganda) and Chioma Onyenwe (Nigeria).”

“The role of the programmers is vital in the shaping of a festival, and we are very excited to be working with such internationally-acclaimed and recognised individuals, representing a diverse range of expertise and interests. Their task, to select 150 films from an incredible 12300 entries to this year’s festival, was a formidable challenge, and we are most grateful to them. We had, as part of the DIFF extended family, 60 reviewers from around the globe to support them, and we look forward to locking down the programme over the next few weeks, and delivering a festival befitting its “fabulously fortieth” year.”

Zimbabwean playwright, poet, activist and award-winning novelist and filmmaker, Tsitsi Dangaremba, has produced several documentaries and short short films, and has credits on most of Zimbabwe’s feature film classics. Her award-winning short film Kare Kare Zvako (Mother’s Day, 2005) was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

Theresa Hill, with 20 years of experience working in the documentary industry, is responsible for acquisitions, programming, marketing and planning for the online platform AfriDocs, and is also board member of the Ladima Foundation, a Pan-African non-profit organisation which aims to contribute to correcting the major imbalances within the industry.

Well-known writer and critic, former manager of the Durban International Film Festival, and long-time programmer of the fest, Peter Machen, who is currently based in Berlin, makes a welcome return to the programming fold. Peter heads the media cooperative The Communication Factory and works for a plant-based advocacy organisation, and continues to write and reviews films on a number of platforms.

Nataleah Hunter-Young is a film programmer, media artist, and doctoral student in Communication and Culture at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She has experience in  supporting the programming for the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as the Durban International Film Festival.

Lisa Ogdie is a shorts programmer for the Sundance Film Festival and also Membership and Talent Development Manager for BAFTA Los Angeles. She has been part of the Sundance shorts programming team since 2009, selecting the Sundance short film slate from over 9,000 submissions, and has moderated Q&A discussions and panels for BAFTA Los Angeles, Sundance, Toronto Film Festival and the American Pavilion at Cannes.

Screenwriter/Producer Gabrielle Kelly is on the Faculty of the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles, with expertise and a passion for global storytelling, particularly in Asia. She has mentored labs and screenwriting masterclasses around the world, programmed, judged and created film festivals from Guam to Azerbaijan and is an expert on Media Labs and international story development for screens and pages. She worked with New York director Sidney Lumet and in Hollywood with numerous directors, writers and producers. As well as running producer Robert Evan’s company at Paramount for several years, she has also worked at HBO, CBS Films, Eddie Murphy Productions and Warner Bros.

Fibby Kioria is a programme director of Maisha Film Lab, a leadership development organization founded by Mira Nair to empower visionary filmmakers in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda by giving them the tools to tell their own stories through film. She was the Line Producer on the Mira Nair and Zippy Kimundu short documentary portrait of Robert Katende, A Fork, a Spoon & a Knight. She went on to produce the music video for the song ‘# 1 Spice’ from Disney’s Queen of Katwesoundtrack. She is also an Associate Producer at Afro Films International.

Nigerian filmmaker, Chioma Onyenwe has a background in economics and management from University of Lagos and Imperial College London. She plunged into fulltime film-making in 2014. She is the programme director for the Africa International Film Festival. Her first feature 8 Bars and a Clef, was nominated for the 2016 AMAA Award for Best First Feature Film.

For more information visit the DIFF website.

The 40th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Centre for Creative Arts, in co-operation with Berlinale Talents, has announced that the 12th edition of Talents Durban – in partnership with Durban FilmMart (DFM) – will take place from 18 to 22 July 2019.

The exciting partnership with DFM, Africa’s leading film finance and co-production market, aims to raise the visibility of Talents Durban projects, create networking opportunities with potential co-producers, and facilitate funding opportunities for promising projects.

Talents Durban is open to African screenwriters and directors, with animation, fiction, documentary or hybrid projects in development. The five-day event consists of workshops, discussions, screenings, and programmes for specific disciplines. The initiative also includes Talent Press, a co-operation with FIPRESCI and the Goethe-Institut, which will once again host mentorship for emerging film critics.

Talent Labs

• Storytelling Lab selects three features and three short films currently in development. The stories are given advanced consultation and mentoring by three script editors, as well as participating in scriptwriting workshops.
• Doc Lab is a hands-on training programme in which three Talents Durban participants who submitted documentary projects are given expert mentorship. The participants then pitch their projects at the Durban FilmMart’s African Pitching Forum.
• Animation Lab is open to screenwriters and animation directors with animation projects. The lab will focus on character development, visual development, and the business of animation in Africa.
• Talent Press offers mentorship for three emerging African film critics and journalist. Participants will cover the 40^th Durban International Film Festival. FIPRESCI is an organization of film critics and films journalists established for the promotion and development of film culture.

As well as focused mentorships, industry-specific expert master classes, workshops, and a creative platform for self-expression and networking, Talents Durban will also cover participants’ accommodation, airfare, and festival accreditation. Participants will have direct access to DIFF screenings, DFM masterclasses, networking sessions, and other activities with experts and industry players from around the world.

2019 Focus and Theme

This year’s Talents Durban theme ‘Authenticity’ is inspired by the contemporary moment in African cinema. Following a global renaissance of African cinema and television content, the demand for stories from the continent is rising. African storytellers and audiences seeking to connect with African cinema are grappling with the question of what is authentic African cinema. For filmmakers, this question has a far more inward dimension – before the auteur can offer the answer to this question they have to ask the question of themselves – what is authentic to me? With the four-day programme we are looking for storytellers who embody the future of what it means to have an ‘authentic voice’ – to join this pertinent conversation.

Selection process

Talents Durban will invite 18 Talents, carefully selected by a panel of industry experts. Prospective Talents should complete the application form online, provided they have a recognised portfolio of previous work and a project in progress. Selected projects will be announced on 16 May 2019.

Applications are now open online. Deadline is 30 April 2019.

For more information contact Menzi Mhlongo, +27 (0) 31 260 2506 or talentsdurban@gmail.com

Delegate registration is now open for the 10^th Durban FilmMart (DFM), which takes place from 19 to 22 July during the 40th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF).

The DFM is a joint programme of the Durban Film Office (DFO), the eThekwini Municipality’s industry development unit, and the DIFF, and aims to develop the African film industry, grow African content and network film practitioners.

Considered one of the most important film industry events on the continent, the DFM introduces three new programmes to further complement its co-production market, finance and industry development forums.

“The DFM is really excited to add new programmes in this year’s event, creatively curated by South African creative industries consultant Russel Hlongwane, and producer, curator and arts manager, Tiny Mungwe,” says Toni Monty head of the DFO and the DFM.  “Durban Does Docs is a two-day documentary conference, consisting of panel discussions, masterclasses and plenary presentations aimed to attract documentary filmmakers and scholars from the continent and around the world, who will unpack and discuss the state of the documentary in a global context.”

“We introduce the Creative Corner, a robust open space for emerging scriptwriters, actors, set designers and make-up artists, which will run over four days and will consist of script to live sessions, panel discussions around the creative elements of filmmaking such as editing, make-up, sound design and set design.”

“And then we welcome the Locations Africa Exhibition and Conference, a private sector initiative that focuses on film locations in an effort to re-ignite efforts to position Africa as a key filming destination which has all the necessary elements for inbound productions and local film projects. Key to this is economic transformation within the film sector.”

Locations Africa comprises of a comprehensive expo featuring film commissions and location representatives from South Africa and the continent; running concurrently to the expo is a full four-day programme of seminars, workshops and panel discussions that will delve into a myriad topics including location selection, marketing locations, servicing and facilities management, relationships between location scouts and management and many others.

“This is an ideal opportunity for African countries to market their locations on the continent but also to international producers and investors,” says Monty. ‘A welcome addition to the DFM and DIFF offering, Locations Africa will also provide producers, location scouts and location managers with a ‘one-stop-shop’ to see the many options Africa can provide for filmmakers.”

Adopting the theme Imagine Community, the DFM will use this year as a call for the recalibration of the film industry. According to the curators this provides the framework to build community within and across markets and across countries for the development of the industry on the continent.

The DFM’s forums, will consist of panel discussions, world cafe style engagements and the high level masterclasses focusing on relevant topics that reflect on and forecast African cinema both from an aesthetic and commercial point of view, the convergence of technology and filmmaking, diversity in filmmaking and women in filmmaking. Delegates can look forward to international, African and local cutting-edge speakers delivering perspectives shaping the international and local industry.

DFM delegates also have access to an industry lounge and exhibition, providing opportunities for networking sessions and to create meaningful business relationships across the globe.

Other elements of the DFM include the finance forum in which 20 pre-selected feature film and documentary projects from Africa pitch to potential sponsors, funders or partners, as well as the 12^th Talents Durban, for pre-selected intermediate African filmmakers and within the DIFF the Isiphethu Hub programme for entry level and emerging filmmakers which is free to the public.

“We are expecting this year to be a bumper one, as we celebrate our 10^th anniversary along with the DIFF’s 40^th,” says Monty. “Our programmes are being consolidated and there has been a lot of creative input and film community support as we begin the lead up to this very significant moment in the history of film on the continent.”

Early bird registration is open until 28 June 2019. Early bird fees are R1300 (ZAR) for the four-day programme, which includes four day’s access to the DFM Industry Programme, access to DFM producers lounge and DFM networking events, 10 tickets to Durban International Film Festival screenings and company information published in the industry manual. After 28 June fees are R1600 for the full programme while daily passes are R450 each (the daily pass does not include tickets to DIFF screenings or access into the opening and closing events). All tickets exclude meals.

Visit the DFM website to register.

Project submissions for the 10th Durban FilmMart (DFM) which takes place from 19 to 22 July 2019, during the 40th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) in South Africa, are now open.

The DFM is a joint project of the Durban Film Office (DFO), the eThekwini Municipality’s industry development unit and the DIFF, which aims to support and stimulate the growth of the African film industry and develop connections between African filmmakers and the world.

“We are very proud to be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Durban FilmMart and we look forward to welcoming the next set of projects to join our network,” says head of the Durban Film Office, Toni Monty. “The Durban FilmMart has worked with over 200 projects since its inception 10 years ago, and we are thrilled to have seen many of these projects finding their way onto the international cinema circuit, and for some, winning prestigious awards at global markets and festivals.”

The DFM comprises a stimulating four-day programme of workshops, seminars and networking sessions. The market attracts approximately 600 film-makers, distributors, broadcasters, agents, financiers and investors and other film industry representatives from around the world.

“The Durban FilmMart has become an important launch pad for African content, and we intend to expand opportunities for participating filmmakers even further as we approach our decade celebrations,” says Monty. “For the 2019 project selection, we will be looking for extraordinary African stories with strong creative visions that offer interesting and unique perspectives on African realities. For 2019 we will also be on the lookout for narratives and documentaries that bring women’s voices to the fore.”

Some examples of DFM alumni projects that have received international acclaim include Inxeba:The Wound andTrain of Salt and Sugar (which were South Africa and Mozambique’s respective selections for an Oscar consideration for Best Foreign Language Film in 2018), Five Fingers for Marseilles and Rafiki to name a few.

Ten documentaries and ten fiction feature length film projects will be selected from the submissions, and these projects will undergo a two-day packaging and mentoring programme followed by two days of one-on-one meetings with a panel of film financiers, buyers and distributors from across the globe.

The DFM is open to both full length feature and documentary films projects with Africans in the major creative roles (writers, directors and producers) that are looking for co-producers, financiers, sales agents and funders. Film projects submitted are reviewed by a selection committee for consideration. All projects must have both a producer and director attached to them and must be submitted by 14 January 2019.

For more about the Durban FilmMart 2019, project submission criteria and how to submit your project, visit the DFM website.

The 40th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) takes place from 18 to 28 July 2019.

For further enquires contact: info@durbanfilmmart.com

The 39^th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) held its awards ceremony on Saturday, 28 July, at Suncoast CineCentre as filmmakers and film-lovers gathered to watch the official closing film Rafiki, directed by Wanuri Kahiu.

A total of 17 awards were given out at the ceremony:

Best Feature Film: The Reports on Sarah and Saleem, directed by Muayad Alayan and produced by Muayad Alayan, Rami Alayan, Hans de Wolf, Hanneke Niens, Rebekka Garrido, Rodrigo Iturralde, Georgina Gonzalez and Alejandro Duran. The award is accompanied by a cash prize of R50 000.

Best South African Feature Film: High Fantasy, directed by Jenna Bass and produced by David Horler and Steven Markovitz. The film received a cash prize of R25 000.

Best Documentary: New Moon, produced and directed by Philippa Ndisi-Hermann. The film received a cash prize of R25 000.

Best South African Documentary: Sisters of the Wilderness, directed by Karin Slater and produced by Ronit Shapiro. The award is accompanied by a cash prize of R25 000.

Best Direction: Constantin Popescu for Pororoca.

Best Cinematography: Liviu Marghidan for Pororoca.

Best Screenplay: Jennifer Fox for The Tale.

Best Actor: Bogdan Dumitrache for his role as Tudor in Pororoca, directed by Constantin Popescu.

Best Actress: Maisa Abd Elhadi for her role as Bisan in The Reports on Sarah and Saleem.

Best Editing: Anne Fabini, Alex Hall and Gary Level for The Tale.

Artistic Bravery: The award was won jointly by High Fantasy, directed by Jenna Bass, and Supa Modo, directed by  Likarion Wainaina.

Best South African Short Film: Stillborn, directed by Jahmil X. T. Qubeka and produced by Huanxi Media Group, Xstream Pictures and Yellowbone Entertainment. The film received a cash prize of R20 000 sponsored by the Gauteng Film Commission.

Best African Short Film: Aya, directed by Moufida Fedhila and produced by Appel d’Air Films. The film also received a cash prize of R20 000 sponsored by the Gauteng Film Commission.

Best Short Film: The Patience of Water (La Paciencia Del Agua), directed by Guillem Almirall. The film received a cash prize of R20 000 from the Gauteng Film Commission.

Audience Choice Award: The State Against Mandela and the Others, directed by Nicolas Champeaux and Gilles Porte, which received a cash prize of R25 000.

Amnesty International Durban Human Rights Award: Silas, directed by Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman, and produced by Appian Way, Big World Cinema and Ink & Pepper Productions.

Best Wavescape Film: Heavy Water, directed by Michael Oblowitz.

DIFF has recently been included as a Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival by the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, which means that both the winners of the Best Documentary, New Moon, and Best SA Documentary, Sisters of the Wilderness, will now automatically qualify for consideration for an Oscar nomination.

The Shorts jury included creative media education and development specialist Alicia Price and Leon Van Der Merwe of the Cape Town International Film Market and Festival. The fiction feature jurors were South African producer Bongiwe Selane, Nigerian actor Hakeem Kae Kazim and Nigerian actress Nse Ikpe-Etim. The documentary film jury included South African producer Uzanenkosi, Zimbabwean producer Nakai Matema, Nigerian filmmaker Mahmood Ali-Balogun and Berlin-based freelance filmmaker, writer and curator, Dorothee Wenner.

The 2018 edition of the Durban International Film Festival came to an end on 29 July and was part of a month-long feast of film in Durban, which included the BRICS Film festival and industry programmes, the Durban FilmMart, Isiphethu, Talents Durban, and the Nature Environment and Wildlife Film Congress.

Winners of the Best International Documentary and Best SA Documentary awards at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) will now automatically qualify for Oscar consideration.

The festival has been notified by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of this inclusion, which effectively means that the winning documentaries will be up for consideration for the 91^st Academy Awards in 2019.

This year, the Academy established a Documentary Feature Qualifying Festival List, and the DIFF is one of 28 selected international festivals that will be have their winners up for consideration.

DIFF joins other prestigious festivals from around the globe including the Cannes International Film Festival, Berlinale International Film Festival, Sydney International Film Festival, Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival, and IDFA – the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

The only other qualifying African festival is the Carthage Festival in Tunisia.

“We are delighted with this international recognition, and we are especially pleased for the film-makers that will benefit from the recognition that they will receive as a result,” says Lliane Loots of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. “The festival began 39 years ago as a means to expose South Africans to global stories, during the really dark days of Apartheid, where censorship and government policy, as well as hard-felt, yet very effective, cultural boycotts denied us access to international creative expression. It was also started as a means to offer cinema experiences in townships where people had very little access to ‘the media’ at large. So from these humble beginnings, we are really grateful to the Academy for providing this opportunity for the filmmakers who have films in the festival.”

The Durban International Film Festival is currently running at various venues in Durban until 29 July.

It’s been a bumper year for this year’s Durban FilmMart (DFM), the industry development programme of the eThekwini Municipality’s Durban Film Office (DFO) and Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), which ended with an awards ceremony at the Southern Sun Maharani Hotel in Durban, South Africa, on Monday, 23 July.

Speaking at the DFM awards ceremony, Toni Monty, head of the DFO and the Durban FilmMart, said, “As one of the most important, film industry events and film finance platforms on the continent, we are really pleased that we have grown the DFM substantially this year with 877 delegates attending. We had over 40 countries participating this year, of which 19 were from Africa. A total number of 52 projects were pitched to potential partners, financiers, filmmakers, producers, distributors and agents during countless meetings.”

Key to the value that the Durban FilmMart provides filmmakers are the many meetings and networking sessions that are held between delegates over the four days.

“The important work we do to enable filmmakers, would not be possible without our partners and sponsors,” said Monty, “And we would like to thank our partner markets, development organisations and funding bodies with deep gratitude.”

“The work we do at this mart supports the DIFF and DFO’s vision to dynamically grow the industry and bring African cinema to its own people and to global platforms.”

Eighteen official DFM film projects in development were presented at the Finance Forum through the sponsorship of the Industrial Development Corporation and the National Film and Video Foundation.

Supported by Berlinale Talents, the Goethe-Institut and the German Embassy and in cooperation with Fipresci, Durban Talents was able to host 16 young filmmakers, and three Talents Press.

“We hosted a number of scriptwriters’ labs including Jumpstart which is supported by Produire au Sud, France and the Realness Script Writing Residency. Hot Docs Canada, mentored 11 documentary projects in development and six CineFam Africa television series projects were mentored by Caribbean Tales, Canada.”

“We recognise the important role that the eThekwini Municipality, the principal funder of the DFM plays in its success,” continued Monty. “The city’s involvement actively enables the economic growth of the industry, and we thank them for this.”

The DFM hosted a number of delegations this year including the in-bound delegation through the Department of Trade and Industry, the BRICS Film Festival delegation through the Department of Arts and Culture. Special thanks must go to the Canadian High Commission and US Embassy and the French Institute (IFAS), NFVF and KZN Film Commission for their support in bringing in delegates.

The Awards/Grants:

• The International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam (IDFA) awarded the most promising documentary project at the DFM, Cheese Girl (South Africa), produced by Batana Vundla, Marion Isaacs and directedby Milisuthando Bongela, with an opportunity to attend the  IDFA Forum, one of the top gatherings for documentary filmmakers, producers, commissioning editors, funds, private financiers and other documentary filmmakers in Europe, in November.
• The broadcast stream, Afridocs, that flights African and other international documentaries across 49 countries of sub-Saharan Africa on a weekly basis, gave a €2500 award, funded by the Bertha Foundation, to Zinder, The Seeds of Violence (Niger), produced by Clara Vuillermoz, Ousmane Samassekou and directed by Aicha Macky.
• The CineMart Award, sponsored by the co-production market of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, went to the fiction project, Nyanga/The Horn (Zimbabwe), produced by Sue-Ellen Chitunya, Brett Michael Innes and directoed by Brett Michael Innes. The project is given an opportunity to attend the Rotterdam Lab, a five-day training and networking event for producers from all over the world.

• Produire au Sud of Festival des 3 Continents (Nantes) awarded the fiction film Porta-Retrato (Mozambique), produced by Aldino Languana, Osvaldo Lupini Bambamba and directed by Orlando Mabasso Jr., an opportunity to attend its developmental workshop programme, PAS, where they will be given tools, expertise, and opportunities to develop European networks.
• Videovision Entertainment awarded the “Best South African Film Project” to Snake (South Africa), produced by Paul Egan, Stanford Gibson and Mustapha Hendricks and directed by Meg Rickards. They receive a prize valued at R75 000, which guarantees its release once it is completed. The prize also includes marketing and distribution support from Videovision Entertainment.
• Versfeld & Associates, publicity consultants awarded Nyanga/The Horn (Zimbabwe), produced by Sue-Ellen Chitunya, Brett Michael Innes and director by Brett Michael Innes, the development of a press kit.

• Sørfond awarded the project How to Steal a Country, produced by Rehad Desai and Zivia Desai and directed by Mark Kaplan, with an opportunity to pitch at the Sørfond Pitching Forum in Oslo later this year.

• CineFAM-Africa Incubator Accelerator Programme award to pitch at the Caribbean Tales Film Festival in Toronto, went to The Summit Club by Layla Swart

New awards this year include:

• Hot Docs Blue Ice Award – a cash prize of 2000 Candian Dollars went to the documentary project The Master’s Plan, produced by Hanne Phlypo and directed by Yuri Ceuninck.
• 11^th Talents Durban “Talents Press” Recognition Award went to Cornelia Glele.
• Durban FilmMart Award for the Durban Talents project selected as a project for DFM 2019 went to When Shadows Move by Aliki Saragas.

The DFM ended last night, but the Durban International Film Festival continues until 29 July. There is a free industry programmer – Isiphethu – happening opposite the Southern Sun Garden Court Marine Parade with seminars and workshops for the public and emerging filmmakers, as well as free screenings at various venues.

The 2018 Durban FilmMart (DFM), currently taking place alongside the 39th Durban International Film Festival at the Elangeni Hotel in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, has seen a substantial increase in numbers in its ninth edition. Toni Monty, head of the Durban Film Office (DFO), beamed when sharing that numbers are up once again this year for Africa’s premier film market.

The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), in partnership with the eThekwini Municipality’s Durban Film Office, has for nine years presented this imperative hub for filmmakers from across the African continent and abroad with a specific aim at growing the African film industry.

In recent years projects coming out of the DFM have been gaining more international recognition at premium festivals and awards shows than ever before: “That is, I believe, due to how we have structured the mart,” says Monty. “We have created a global network of partners that are very interested in African content, that work with us throughout the year to identify new talents and that is where the magic lies.”

With this in mind, the DFO have implemented interesting programmes and incubators, with the help of its international partners, in order to further that growth going forward. One such initiative is the CaribbeanTales’ CineFAM programme: “We started the CineFAM Africa incubator last year on serialised content. It’s in its second year and we’ve got six projects incubated this year as well as two Canadian broadcasters that have come out to work with them. We’re going to be looking at the applicability and accessibility of the treaty in terms of serialised content and how we can increase co-production between Africa and Canada in the realm of serialised content.”

Monty shared that when developing the conference strand at this year’s DFM, the focus was as always on key areas of development for the African film industry. However, this year saw the introduction of new discussions targeted at tackling important issues currently affecting the global film industry. “First and foremost we have a focus on co-production as it is a co-production market. We have a focus on financing film in Africa… we also wanted to look at South Africa and Africa being an emerging market. We wanted to look at sustainability for filmmakers…” Monty comments, “But aside from that there were some very important issue that we wanted  to bring into the discussions; the focus on women in film and transformation, as well as the #MeToo discussion – supported by SWIFT – are conversations we will continue with in years to come. We want to create stronger support for women both in front of and behind the camera.”

This year the DFM conference also touched on other topics that have arisen from recent public debate currently surrounding the industry: “We had a session titled ‘Are There Any Sacred Cows in Filmmaking’ where we looked at the issues and concerns around cultural appropriation in filmmaking… It is an incredibly important discussion, not just for filmmaking but for South Africans and Africans as a whole, and it’s something that we never really address because it’s a difficult conversation to have. We do hope to continue that thread over the next few editions.”

Additionally, Monty made note of the Isiphethu hub – launched this year in partnership with Durban Tourism – which is DIFF’s open industry programme, running for four days, aimed at introducing entry level, emerging and micro-budget filmmakers, as well as interested members of the public, to the inner-workings of the world of cinema. “DFM is a professional level market and whilst we have many emerging filmmakers in the Durban FilmMart, with Isiphethu, we wanted to create a place where entry-level filmmakers can feel at home and call it their own,” she comments.

Next year is a milestone year for the Durban FilmMart as it will be turning 10. “Next year will be 10 years of Durban FilmMart, it will be 40 years of DIFF. We have already started planning for 2019 and we certainly do plan on having a major celebration – so definitely watch this space! Ten years of DFM means it’s time to take it to the next level so we will certainly be bringing in some new aspects to the Durban FilmMart.”