Call for submissions for Durban Filmmart

Last edited: February 01, 2010

Posted by Business and Arts South Africa

Organisers are calling for the submission of projects for consideration for the inaugural Durban FilmMart in July.

It was announced earlier this year that The Durban Film Office (DFO) and Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) will be hosting the first international film co-production market on the African continent.

"This first African co-production market has the potential to act as a key driver in raising the visibility of film content from Africa," says Toni Monty, acting CEO of the DFO. "We envisage that it will provide African film-makers with the opportunity to pitch film projects to leading financiers and meet and network with internationally reputed directors and producers in order to form alliances for future collaborations."

Projects with an African citizen attached to one of the three creative roles of writer, director or producer are eligible to participate in the inaugural Durban FilmMart. These include fiction features, animation features and documentaries suitable for international co-production and distribution.

"We expect the FilmMart to be a place for film financiers to locate fundable African projects and encourage project collaboration between African film-makers from different African countries and through this forum to redress the current scarcity of film production on this continent. In fact, it is hoped that the Durban FilmMart will become a valuable feeder stage for established co-production markets across the globe," says Peter Rorvik, director of the Centre for Creative Arts/DIFF.

The Durban FilmMart promises to be a further catalyst for growth in the region by becoming one of the key events of the South African and African film industry and a focal point to interface with global parties and stimulate interest and activity in the city and the province.

The Durban FilmMart will be a joint project of the DFO and the DIFF and will take place in July during the 31st Durban International Film Festival (22 July - 1 August). For more information on the Durban FilmMart and project submissions visit the website by clicking here or contact Musonda Chimba, Durban Film Office on 031 311 4248 or send an e-mail by clicking .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

NOTES

The Durban Film Office (DFO) is the film-industry development arm of the Ethekwini Municipality, mandated to position Durban as a world-class film production destination and facilitator for the development of the local film industry. The DFO drives activity and development in the sector in order to boost tourism, job creation and the development of core skills and SMME's in the region. The organization is also actively seeking and creating opportunities for setting the benchmark as the leading authority in the field in South Africa.

The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is a flagship project of the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal). The CCA facilitates creative platforms and economic opportunities for artists and related industries, intercultural exchange and network development, training, audience development and strategic Pan-African and international cooperation in the cultural sectors. The CCA also produces three other major annual festivals - Time of the Writer, Jomba! Contemporary Dance Experience and Poetry Africa. For more information please click here.