C.J Obasi’s Mami Wata To Open AFRIKAMERA On Tuesday
The 16th edition of AFRIKAMERA, a festival dedicated to current cinema from Africa begins on Tuesday November 14. This edition has as theme, Urban Africa, Urban Movies: Future & Utopias. The festival will open with the award-winning film, Mami Wata, by Nigerian filmmaker C.J ‘Fiery’ Obasi. Organisers hinted that tickets for the opening film at Arsenal Cinema ‘is already sold out’. They also disclosed that Obasi would be on site for a film talk at both the opening night screening and the second screening scheduled for Wednesday, November 15. The festival will feature screening of films including the special presentation of a documentary research, ‘Au Cimetiere De La Pellicule’ on Guinean cinema culture by Thierno Souleymane Diallo. This year, AFRIKAMERA is cooperating with the Collaborative Research Center 1265 “Re-Figuration of Spaces” (TU Berlin) for the first time. This collaboration will see the presentation of an episode of the FESPACO 2021 award-winning series, Mami Wata: Le Mystere D’iveza. More than 20 events will be held during the festival, which ends on November 19.
Afreximbank Announces African Film Fund
THE African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is working on the establishment of a $1 billion African Film Fund to be launched in 2024. The fund is to support the continent’s film industry. Addressing the opening of the 2023 CANEX Summit held as part of the third Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023) in Cairo, Egypt, Mrs. Awani said the fund would oversee film financing, co-finance with large studios, finance African filmmakers and finance producers and directors of film projects across the continent. She noted that the Bank had increased the financing it was making available to the creative sector from $500 million to $1 billion and that the bank currently has a pipeline of over $600 million in film, music, visual arts, fashion, and sports deal. “The very first film we financed recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival,” Awani said, adding, “the bank has several in the pipeline from Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, which should be on streaming platforms in 2024.” Acknowledging that the film and audiovisual industries in Africa accounted for $5 billion of the continent’s GDP and employed an estimated five million people, with the potential to create over 20 million jobs and generate $20 billion in revenues, yearly, Awani noted that the sector faced several challenges, including limited access to financing and copyright infringement due to weak copyright laws, enforcement mechanisms and a lack of awareness. The sector was also confronted with infrastructure and technology gaps, lack of capacity and shortage of skilled professionals and limited market access and international exposure, as a result of which African creative and cultural products often struggle to gain exposure and access to international markets. Earlier, Boris Kodjoe, a celebrity actor of Ghanaian descent, highlighted how the creativity of Africans had influenced various aspects of modern life, including music, fashion, art, design, film and TV. Kodjoe said the world craved culturally specific global content and that Africa was a key player in meeting that demand. Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) programme set up by Afreximbank seeks to facilitate the development and growth of the creative and cultural industries in Africa and the diaspora.
Durban FilmMart Institute Open Call For Animation Project
THE Durban FilmMart Institute (DFMI) has opened call for animation projects to pitch at the 15th yearly DFM Pitch and Finance Forum, which holds in Durban from July 19 to 22, 2024. The DFMI will select eight official animation projects in development to present to a panel of international decision-makers consisting of potential co-producers, and distributors at Africa’s premier film finance and coproduction market. Animators with projects in development from across the continent are invited to apply. The Forum is open to both series and feature-length projects and at least one of the three key creatives (Producer, Writer, Director) should be from Africa or African in the Diaspora. Successful project participants will be invited to participate in a comprehensive mentorship programme to prepare them for their live pitch and meetings at DFM 2024. The online mentorship programme will include a series of masterclasses with leading global industry experts over two months in January and February 2024.
To present their project at the 15th DFM one representative from the project will be provided with travel and accommodation to attend the live Pitch and Finance Forum in July 2024. “Over the past few years, we have seen exponential growth in the animation sector. We are pleased that the inclusion of animation in the yearly market has strengthened the ecosystem by providing the much-needed visibility for creative talent, facilitating key connections to local and international decision-makers and enhancing the development that is assisting animators to compete in a global market. We believe that working with local and continental partners offers a holistic support structure to the already important work done in Africa,” says Magdalene Reddy, Director of the Durban FilmMart Institute. This edition of the programme will retain the successful collaboration between Durban FilmMart Institute and Tshimologong’s Digital Lab Africa with an extended online programme in March and April. Applications can be made through the Durban FilmMart Institute website: https://durbanfilmmart.co.za/pitch-and-finance-forum-application/. Deadline for application is Friday December 1.
