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Initial Market Program Announced: Entries Open
The 2018 edition of the Cape Town International Film Market and Festival will take place from October 9th – 19th 2018 at venues across the V & A Waterfront in Cape Town. This year’s edition will feature an expanded and content focused market, led by the recently appointed Market Director Elias Ribeiro.
The CTIFMF has reached out to various industry stakeholders in a collaborative effort in keeping with its theme, of CREATE, COLLABORATE, CELEBRATE, to develop a program with tangible outcomes and a view to the long term growth of the industry both regionally and across the continent.
A number of key programs have been finalized, all designed to maximize opportunities for emerging talent and to establish long term inclusive programs.
Elias Ribeiro explains further, “As the CTIFMF, learning from many who have paved the way, we have taken great care in crafting an offering that is complementary to current industry offerings. We hope to strengthen our bonds with partners such as the Durban Film Mart and together foster a dynamic and vibrant ecosystem that will contribute to assertive impact in film projects, our financial instruments and funders, policy designers and audiovisual makers at large. We also have prioritised an Audience Development program called Engage, with the faith we will in the long term make local films more sustainable in the domestic market.”
Marketing Director of the CTIFMF Jehad Kasu has this to say of the program, “It is the vision of the CTIFMF to reposition South Africa’s film industry offering through meaningful industry collaboration. If we harness our collective resources we can achieve an infinite amount of collective growth and success. This will of course take a reasonable amount of time and commitment to achieve. So we implore all film industry stakeholders new, established, private and state owned to support one another and become active participants in elevating the presence and contribution of the South African film industry within the global ecosystem.
WIP (Works in Progress)
As the most important element of a market is its content, the CTIFMF has developed a program that aims to elevate the bar for African content in terms of quality and innovation. A maximum of six works in progress will be selected from the African continent to show to international industry experts. High calibre decision makers and experts will be hand-picked to view the selected films and then give detailed feedback, with the goal of increasing the artistic quality and challenging the core creative teams to think about audiences beyond their own territories.
This initial viewing will be followed by a screening of a segment of the same works to a wider audience of invited industry stakeholders comprising of festival programmers, sales companies, distributors and post production financiers. The WIP program will disburse finishing awards to the most promising projects: grading, final sound mix, VFX, online editing, subtitling and DCPs, with the generous support of South African post production facilities such as Priest Post, Rhapsody, The Refinery and The Work Room Audio Post.
We have confirmed attendance from Berlinale’s European Film Market and Berlinale Africa Hub, Tribeca, TIFF, London BFI; international sales companies such as Pyramide International, Flourishing Films, Talent Agents Casarotto and Curtis Brown, Mnet, Indigenous Films, Ster Kinekor, and Post Production South Africa.
Entries are due no later than August 10th. For full details visit www.filmfest.capetown or email zahrah@filmfest.capetown.
ENGAGE
Considering that one of the most challenging and pressing issues for local films is to earn the trust of local audiences that then translates into box office success, the CTIFMF will have a special focus on audience design and development.
A group of marketing and industry experts with an understanding of these challenges will be convened for a three-day workshop under the guidance of Valeria Richter. This outcome based workshop will equip these professionals with the most current and powerful tools designed to assist films in finding their target market and core following.
At the end of the workshop, each participant will be assigned a project from the WIP and will be expected to deliver an Audience Design Strategy, with a cash prize awarded to the most prolific two of the lot to craft an Audience Design Strategy in collaboration with the Festival Board for CTIFMF 2019.
Aimed at publicists, marketing and sales professionals, distributors and others within the field, applications are open until August 17th. More details on the program, outcomes and prize can be found at www.filmfest.capetown, or email zahrah@filmfest.capetown.
ADAPT
CTIFMF’s Adapt program will bring together creatives, producers, and rights holders from the publishing and film industries to explore the possibilities of cinematic book adaptations as well as to develop an economic model and business practice around this that accounts for our African realities.
A number of toolbox sessions and workshops will be led by Selina Ukwuoma on translating from book to screen. She is no newcomer to South Africa as she has been working closely with Realness as well as Talents Durban over the past 3 years.
Selina is a freelance script consultant who began her career at literary agency Curtis Brown working on a number of adaptations including 2008 BAFTA winner BOY A. She has since gone on to advise on award-winning indie films such as 2014 Teddy winner THE WAY HE LOOKS and this year’s Goyas triumph SUMMER 1993, both Foreign Language Oscars entries from their respective countries.
The industry program of the CTIFMF will see 4 days of panel discussions, keynote speeches and workshops with participation from experts from South Africa, the rest of Africa, and across the globe. There will be a variety of relevant topics covered, all aimed at inclusive and constructive dialogues that foster the development of a cohesive and continually developing film industry. These topics include mentorship, financing, AR/VR, animation, blockchain and crypto currency.
For more information, submissions material list and to download application forms: www.filmfest.capetown
