Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline’s fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it’s ever been, but breakout hits are emerging in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. That’s why we’re doing the hard work for you.
This week, we detail a co-production from South Africa and France that spotlights the four-wheeled sport of spinning. Not heard of it? Well neither had we, but on closer inspection this series is far more than an exhibition of a little-known extreme pasttime. Creatives on the Showmax-Canal+ co-pro tell us why ‘Spinners‘ holds a mirror up to society, and where they think it could travel next.
Name: Spinners
Country: South Africa & France
Networks: Showmax & Canal+
Producer: Empreinte Digitale & Natives at Large
International...
This week, we detail a co-production from South Africa and France that spotlights the four-wheeled sport of spinning. Not heard of it? Well neither had we, but on closer inspection this series is far more than an exhibition of a little-known extreme pasttime. Creatives on the Showmax-Canal+ co-pro tell us why ‘Spinners‘ holds a mirror up to society, and where they think it could travel next.
Name: Spinners
Country: South Africa & France
Networks: Showmax & Canal+
Producer: Empreinte Digitale & Natives at Large
International...
- 2/20/2024
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Fasten your seat belts! African streamer Showmax and Canal+ are getting ready to go pedal to the metal.
The streaming company, co-owned by African pay-tv giant MultiChoice Group and Comcast, and the French pay TV giant has released a trailer for the eight-part gangster and extreme sports drama Spinners, which The Hollywood Reporter is revealing exclusively.
The companies’ third co-production, set in South Africa’s Cape Town, became the first African show to take part in CanneSeries’ main competition.
Spinners follows Ethan (Cantona James), a 17-year-old driver working for a gang who is trying to support his younger brother and discovers a possible way out of gang life: spinning, an extreme motorsport that features drivers performing jaw-dropping daredevil stunts. However, a looming gang war jeopardizes his plans.
The cast includes James (Arendsvlei) and Chelsea Thomas (Arendsvlei) in leading roles, along with Elton Landrew (Recipes for Love & Murder); Dillon Windvogel...
The streaming company, co-owned by African pay-tv giant MultiChoice Group and Comcast, and the French pay TV giant has released a trailer for the eight-part gangster and extreme sports drama Spinners, which The Hollywood Reporter is revealing exclusively.
The companies’ third co-production, set in South Africa’s Cape Town, became the first African show to take part in CanneSeries’ main competition.
Spinners follows Ethan (Cantona James), a 17-year-old driver working for a gang who is trying to support his younger brother and discovers a possible way out of gang life: spinning, an extreme motorsport that features drivers performing jaw-dropping daredevil stunts. However, a looming gang war jeopardizes his plans.
The cast includes James (Arendsvlei) and Chelsea Thomas (Arendsvlei) in leading roles, along with Elton Landrew (Recipes for Love & Murder); Dillon Windvogel...
- 8/28/2023
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Festivals
American narrative feature projects in rough or final cut seeking finishing funds are now invited to submit to the 2022 edition of U.S. in Progress, which takes place Nov. 9-11 during the 13th American Film Festival (Nov.8-13) in Wroclaw, Poland. The strand pairs American projects in final production stages with European buyers and top Polish image and sound post-production companies and provides awards worth totally $100,000. The head of the Polish Film Institute, Radosław Śmigulski, will award one project with a $50,000 cash award to be spent on post-production, image, sound and/or VFX in Poland and Polish post-production companies Fixafilm, Orka Studio, Black Photon, Xanf and Soundflower Studio are each offering a $10,000 in-kind award.
There is no entry fee, and films can be submitted through the U.S. in Progress website. The final deadline is September 11.
The program’s objective is to inspire U.S. producers to work with Poland,...
American narrative feature projects in rough or final cut seeking finishing funds are now invited to submit to the 2022 edition of U.S. in Progress, which takes place Nov. 9-11 during the 13th American Film Festival (Nov.8-13) in Wroclaw, Poland. The strand pairs American projects in final production stages with European buyers and top Polish image and sound post-production companies and provides awards worth totally $100,000. The head of the Polish Film Institute, Radosław Śmigulski, will award one project with a $50,000 cash award to be spent on post-production, image, sound and/or VFX in Poland and Polish post-production companies Fixafilm, Orka Studio, Black Photon, Xanf and Soundflower Studio are each offering a $10,000 in-kind award.
There is no entry fee, and films can be submitted through the U.S. in Progress website. The final deadline is September 11.
The program’s objective is to inspire U.S. producers to work with Poland,...
- 8/10/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Canal+ is teaming with African streamer Showmax for its latest drama from Africa, an action drama about the dangerous South African motor sport spinning. Production on Spinners began in Cape Town on the eight-part series this week, with Gaia director Jaco Bouwer attached.
Shot in English, Kaaps and Afrikaans, it is produced by Joachim Landau and Raphaël Rocher for French indie Empreinte Digitale and co-produced by Locarno, Amiens and Fespaco winner Ramadan Suleman and his full service film and TV production outfit Natives at Large. Canal+-owned Studiocanal has international distribution rights.
Landau co-created the show with Benjamin Hoffman. Director is Bouwer, whose horror Gaia won the Zeiss Cinematography Award last year at SXSW, and Matthew Jankes, Sean Steinberg, Gillian Breslin, Daniel Zimbler, Byron Abrahams and Zoë Laband comprising the writing team.
The motor sport on which the series is based sees cars driven at high speed with drivers performing...
Shot in English, Kaaps and Afrikaans, it is produced by Joachim Landau and Raphaël Rocher for French indie Empreinte Digitale and co-produced by Locarno, Amiens and Fespaco winner Ramadan Suleman and his full service film and TV production outfit Natives at Large. Canal+-owned Studiocanal has international distribution rights.
Landau co-created the show with Benjamin Hoffman. Director is Bouwer, whose horror Gaia won the Zeiss Cinematography Award last year at SXSW, and Matthew Jankes, Sean Steinberg, Gillian Breslin, Daniel Zimbler, Byron Abrahams and Zoë Laband comprising the writing team.
The motor sport on which the series is based sees cars driven at high speed with drivers performing...
- 8/10/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
One of the acclaimed short films from the sophomore class of Focus Features’ seemingly now-defunct Africa First Shorts Program, "Umkhungo," also a South African film, directed by Matthew Jankes, is now online, courtesy of the filmmaker, who alerted me to it over the weekend, and I'm sharing with you all now. The film is as close to a superhero origin story, set in an African country, as there currently is in the marketplace. In it, a disillusioned Johannesburg hustler on the run rescues an orphaned child with uncontrollable supernatural powers. He attempts to help the boy master his gift before a superstitious family member, who believes the boy is more of a curse, hunts them...
- 9/8/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The British Council has launched a UK-Nigeria screenwriting initiative called Script Junction, which will officially launch at the upcoming Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff - June 19-23, 2015), which will be followed by a second 5-day program set to take place at the Africa International Film Festival in Nigeria in November. Script Junction targets up-and-coming writers, early in their careers, who are working on scripts of all genres. In total, 12 writers (6 British and 6 Nigeria) have been selected for the inaugural event: Shola Amoo, Maurice Caldera, Russell Davidson, Sam Firth, Matthew Jankes and Jennifer Majka representing the Brits; and Kenneth Gyang, Adiodun Kassim,...
- 6/17/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
$10,000 In Financing Goes To Five
New Moviemakers For Their Short Films
New York, October 6th, 2011 . For a fourth consecutive year, Focus Features. Africa First program for short films, the worldwide film company.s initiative earmarked exclusively for emerging filmmakers of African nationality and residence, has awarded five filmmakers $10,000 apiece, Focus CEO James Schamus announced today.
The uniquely conceived initiative offers eligible and participating filmmakers the chance to be awarded the $10,000 in financing for pre-production, production, and/or post-production on their narrative short film made in continental Africa and tapping into the resources of the film industry there. Of equal importance, the program brings the filmmakers together with each other and with a renowned group of advisors, major figures in the African film world, for support and mentorship. The short films coming out of the program have been showcased at the Sundance, Toronto, and Berlin Film Festivals; the Film Society of...
New Moviemakers For Their Short Films
New York, October 6th, 2011 . For a fourth consecutive year, Focus Features. Africa First program for short films, the worldwide film company.s initiative earmarked exclusively for emerging filmmakers of African nationality and residence, has awarded five filmmakers $10,000 apiece, Focus CEO James Schamus announced today.
The uniquely conceived initiative offers eligible and participating filmmakers the chance to be awarded the $10,000 in financing for pre-production, production, and/or post-production on their narrative short film made in continental Africa and tapping into the resources of the film industry there. Of equal importance, the program brings the filmmakers together with each other and with a renowned group of advisors, major figures in the African film world, for support and mentorship. The short films coming out of the program have been showcased at the Sundance, Toronto, and Berlin Film Festivals; the Film Society of...
- 10/6/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The New York African Film Festival begins Today New Yorkers, and the 2011 lineup is an impressive one!
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s explosive Viva Riva!, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and swept the African Movie Academy Awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and dug it! Read me review Here.
New Yorkers will also get to see Besouro (a Shadow And Act Film...
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s explosive Viva Riva!, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and swept the African Movie Academy Awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and dug it! Read me review Here.
New Yorkers will also get to see Besouro (a Shadow And Act Film...
- 4/6/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The New York African Film Festival begins tomorrow New Yorkers, and the 2011 lineup is an impressive one!
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s explosive Viva Riva!, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and swept the African Movie Academy Awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and dug it! Read me review Here.
New Yorkers will also get to see Besouro (a Shadow And Act Film...
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s explosive Viva Riva!, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and swept the African Movie Academy Awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I saw it a couple of weeks ago, and dug it! Read me review Here.
New Yorkers will also get to see Besouro (a Shadow And Act Film...
- 4/6/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
One press day #1 of the upcoming New York African Film Festival, I saw the explosive Viva Riva! (my full review of the film Here); and on day two, we were treated to about 90 minutes of short films, all of them from the sophomore class of Focus Features’ Africa First Shorts Program, and I must say, this year’s group of shorts was much stronger than last year’s crop.
Not that the freshman class of the program, which included Wanuri Kahiu’s much talked about sci-fi film Pumzi, was weak. Collectively, this year’s films were really impressive. I’m not sure if it’s simply due to the fact that it is the second year of the program, and so any rough edges aren’t as jagged as they were in the first round; or maybe it just has to do with my own preferences. Another viewer might say...
Not that the freshman class of the program, which included Wanuri Kahiu’s much talked about sci-fi film Pumzi, was weak. Collectively, this year’s films were really impressive. I’m not sure if it’s simply due to the fact that it is the second year of the program, and so any rough edges aren’t as jagged as they were in the first round; or maybe it just has to do with my own preferences. Another viewer might say...
- 3/28/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
The New York African Film Festival has announced its 2011 lineup, and it’s an impressive one! I’m excited, and hopefully you will be too, especially if you live in New York.
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film at Sundance in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s Viva Riva!, which screened at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and Fespaco last month, where it won some awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I haven’t seen it, but I’m really looking forward to doing so.
Of note, several films that have been touted on this website (old and new) are scheduled to screen at this year’s festival, including, Andrew Dosunmu’s feature film directorial debut and Sundance 2011 entry, Restless City, in what I believe will be the film’s New York city premiere! I saw the film at Sundance in January, and found it enchanting. You can read my full review of it Here.
Also, Congolese filmmaker Djo Tunda Wa Munga’s Viva Riva!, which screened at the Toronto Film Festival last fall, and Fespaco last month, where it won some awards; a film that’s being referred to as “Congolese Avant-Garde.” I haven’t seen it, but I’m really looking forward to doing so.
- 3/15/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
2011 Entry Period For Focus Features.
Africa First Program To Commence May 16th;
$10,000 In Financing Apiece Earmarked For New Filmmakers
Focus Features will accept entries for its Africa First Program . entering its fourth year . beginning Monday, May 16th and continuing through Monday, August 22nd. Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement today.
The uniquely conceived initiative, with funds earmarked exclusively for emerging filmmakers of African nationality and residence, is for the fourth consecutive year offering eligible and participating filmmakers the chance to be awarded $10,000 in financing for pre-production, production, and/or post-production on their narrative short film made in continental Africa and tapping into the resources of the film industry there. The program also brings the filmmakers together with each other and with a renowned group of advisors, major figures in the African film world, for support and mentorship. Complete details on Africa First . including application information . can be accessed year-round through www.
Africa First Program To Commence May 16th;
$10,000 In Financing Apiece Earmarked For New Filmmakers
Focus Features will accept entries for its Africa First Program . entering its fourth year . beginning Monday, May 16th and continuing through Monday, August 22nd. Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement today.
The uniquely conceived initiative, with funds earmarked exclusively for emerging filmmakers of African nationality and residence, is for the fourth consecutive year offering eligible and participating filmmakers the chance to be awarded $10,000 in financing for pre-production, production, and/or post-production on their narrative short film made in continental Africa and tapping into the resources of the film industry there. The program also brings the filmmakers together with each other and with a renowned group of advisors, major figures in the African film world, for support and mentorship. Complete details on Africa First . including application information . can be accessed year-round through www.
- 3/2/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Here’s a program we’ve given a lot of ink to on this website, so I won’t rehash. Just read the press release received today, for all the relevant info…
For Immediate Release: 2011 Entry Period For Focus Features’ Africa First Program To Commence May 16th
2011 Entry Period For Focus Features’
Africa First Program To Commence May 16th;
$10,000 In Financing Apiece Earmarked For New Filmmakers
New York , March 2nd, 2011 – Focus Features will accept entries for its Africa First Program – entering its fourth year – beginning Monday, May 16th and continuing through Monday, August 22nd. Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement today.
The uniquely conceived initiative, with funds earmarked exclusively for emerging filmmakers of African nationality and residence, is for the fourth consecutive year offering eligible and participating filmmakers the chance to be awarded $10,000 in financing for pre-production, production, and/or post-production on their narrative short film made in continental...
For Immediate Release: 2011 Entry Period For Focus Features’ Africa First Program To Commence May 16th
2011 Entry Period For Focus Features’
Africa First Program To Commence May 16th;
$10,000 In Financing Apiece Earmarked For New Filmmakers
New York , March 2nd, 2011 – Focus Features will accept entries for its Africa First Program – entering its fourth year – beginning Monday, May 16th and continuing through Monday, August 22nd. Focus CEO James Schamus made the announcement today.
The uniquely conceived initiative, with funds earmarked exclusively for emerging filmmakers of African nationality and residence, is for the fourth consecutive year offering eligible and participating filmmakers the chance to be awarded $10,000 in financing for pre-production, production, and/or post-production on their narrative short film made in continental...
- 3/2/2011
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
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