Posted: July 19, 2019
the dti to Engage Stakeholders at the Durban International Film Festival |
The Department of Trade and Industry (the dti), in partnership with the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the National Video and Film Foundation (NFVF) will host a discussion session at the annual Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) on the Emerging Black Filmmakers Transformation Fund (EBFTF) which is a partnership initiative to assist emerging black filmmakers in accessing funding and driving transformation within the industry. The session will take place at the Garden Court Marine Parade on Sunday, 21 July 2019 from 09:00.
DIFF, which is in its 40th year, is South Africa’s longest-running film festival. It runs across 12 days presenting over 180 screenings of current films from around the world, with strong focus on South African and African cinema. The festival also runs extensive seminar and workshop programmes to stimulate industry capacity. According to the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Nomalungelo Gina, DIFF is one of the best platforms a country can use to promote and showcase its creative skills and promote the latest film and television productions, some of which have been funded by the dti. “One of the key incentives for transformation is the Emerging Black Filmmakers Incentive, which was launched by the dti in 2014 to ensure that there is transformation and meaningful participation by black South Africans within the film industry, which had only seen little transformation in the past. It is important that the dti continuously engages with relevant stakeholders in the industry on its incentives in order to assess the impact and solicit feedback on the challenges that the intended recipients of the incentives could be experiencing in accessing the funds,” says Gina. She adds that the dti has approved about 300 applications inclusive of 94 emerging black film productions and disbursed about R1.5 billion since 2016. the dti-funded productions which will be screened are Knuckle City as the official opening film and Bhai’s Café as the official closing film. Knuckle City has also been selected in the Best Feature Film category. Enquiries: |