Africa-based filmmaker development organization Realness Institute has unveiled its next wave of initiatives as part of Mip Africa and Fame Week.
As part of the event, which is now in its second year in Cape Town, South Africa, alumni of six Realness Institute programs will pitch their films and television series to the market in The Film Pitch and The Episodic Pitch forums. Alongside this, the current cohort of the Institute’s Southern Africa Locarno Industry Academy (Salia) have programmed and co-organized the Fame Week Africa Short Film Festival.
Writer-directors from the seventh edition of the Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency program, which has nurtured films that have completed and been awarded at Sundance, Berlinale and Toronto among others, will be pitching. The residency has supported 48 feature films from 21 countries across the continent so far. This year’s cohort are from Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa and have just completed six weeks of creative incubation.
As part of the event, which is now in its second year in Cape Town, South Africa, alumni of six Realness Institute programs will pitch their films and television series to the market in The Film Pitch and The Episodic Pitch forums. Alongside this, the current cohort of the Institute’s Southern Africa Locarno Industry Academy (Salia) have programmed and co-organized the Fame Week Africa Short Film Festival.
Writer-directors from the seventh edition of the Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency program, which has nurtured films that have completed and been awarded at Sundance, Berlinale and Toronto among others, will be pitching. The residency has supported 48 feature films from 21 countries across the continent so far. This year’s cohort are from Gabon, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa and have just completed six weeks of creative incubation.
- 9/1/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Five screenwriters will take part in the six-week programme.
Five African screenwriters have been selected for the Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency, which will run for six weeks from July 14 to September 6 in South Africa.
The five writers are Ghana’s Amartei Armar, Nigeria’s Michael Omonua, South Africa’s Chantel Clark, Gabon-Lebanon’s Chadi Zeneddine and South Africa’s Babalwa Baartman.
For the seventh edition of the annual residency, the writers will work with three mentors: story consultants Selina Ukwuoma and Thandeka Zwana, and creative producer Cait Pansegrouw. The course will provide mentorship on the writers’ projects and how to...
Five African screenwriters have been selected for the Realness African Screenwriters’ Residency, which will run for six weeks from July 14 to September 6 in South Africa.
The five writers are Ghana’s Amartei Armar, Nigeria’s Michael Omonua, South Africa’s Chantel Clark, Gabon-Lebanon’s Chadi Zeneddine and South Africa’s Babalwa Baartman.
For the seventh edition of the annual residency, the writers will work with three mentors: story consultants Selina Ukwuoma and Thandeka Zwana, and creative producer Cait Pansegrouw. The course will provide mentorship on the writers’ projects and how to...
- 7/12/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Rising South African filmmaker Thati Pele, the director of the hit Netflix teen drama “Blood and Water” and the streamer’s new original series “Savage Beauty,” is preparing her first feature film, which will be produced by the team behind the Oscar-shortlisted LGBTQ drama “The Wound.”
“Brace Yourself” unspools on a failed romantic island getaway, where straitlaced orthodontist Dr. Shaloba Molefe decides to kidnap her unravelling family and won’t let them leave until they love her again. The film is produced by Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw for Urucu Media, in co-production with Frank Hoeve, a 2018 Efp Producer on the Move, for the Netherlands’ Baldr Film.
“Brace Yourself” was selected for North American streamer Topic and Statement Films’ program to support, develop and finance projects from female African filmmakers. It was also selected for Thuthuka, a co-development collaboration between the Netherlands Film Fund and the National Film and Video Foundation (Nfvf) of South Africa.
“Brace Yourself” unspools on a failed romantic island getaway, where straitlaced orthodontist Dr. Shaloba Molefe decides to kidnap her unravelling family and won’t let them leave until they love her again. The film is produced by Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw for Urucu Media, in co-production with Frank Hoeve, a 2018 Efp Producer on the Move, for the Netherlands’ Baldr Film.
“Brace Yourself” was selected for North American streamer Topic and Statement Films’ program to support, develop and finance projects from female African filmmakers. It was also selected for Thuthuka, a co-development collaboration between the Netherlands Film Fund and the National Film and Video Foundation (Nfvf) of South Africa.
- 5/23/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Films and episodic projects from Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Uganda have been unveiled in the final selection of North American streamer Topic and Statement Films’ program to support, develop and finance projects from female African filmmakers.
The features and episodic projects span a range of genres including thriller, sci-fi, suspense, mystery and crime from a variety of African countries and telling a range of diasporic stories.
The selected projects are: Big Fish (Victoria Thomas), Brace Yourself (Thati Pele & Cait Pansegrouw), Eziko (Jenna Bass & Babalwa Baartman), The Legend of Madam Koi-Koi (Melissa O. Adeyemo & Chioma Onyenwe), Nexus (Mary Waireri), The Rain Queen (Nonzi Bogatsu), The Stone That Was Moved (Patience Nitumwesiga), 2065 (Carmen Sangion & Carol Kioko), Sister Nancy (Amirah Tajdin & Wafa Tajdin), and You Never See It Coming (Nelisa Ngcobo).
The program was revealed exclusively by Deadline in June as a co-partnership between First Look Media’s SVoD...
The features and episodic projects span a range of genres including thriller, sci-fi, suspense, mystery and crime from a variety of African countries and telling a range of diasporic stories.
The selected projects are: Big Fish (Victoria Thomas), Brace Yourself (Thati Pele & Cait Pansegrouw), Eziko (Jenna Bass & Babalwa Baartman), The Legend of Madam Koi-Koi (Melissa O. Adeyemo & Chioma Onyenwe), Nexus (Mary Waireri), The Rain Queen (Nonzi Bogatsu), The Stone That Was Moved (Patience Nitumwesiga), 2065 (Carmen Sangion & Carol Kioko), Sister Nancy (Amirah Tajdin & Wafa Tajdin), and You Never See It Coming (Nelisa Ngcobo).
The program was revealed exclusively by Deadline in June as a co-partnership between First Look Media’s SVoD...
- 3/16/2022
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Marrakech International Film Festival’s project incubator showcased 15 projects in development and nine projects.
Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies and Tunisian-French director Erige Sehiri’s Under The Fig Trees have won the top post-production prizes at the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops talent and project incubator.
The films were among 15 projects in development and nine projects in post-production presented in the fourth edition of the workshops, running online from November 22 to 25 and attended by more than 300 international film professionals.
The post-production jury comprised Nuha Eltayeb, director of content acquisitions for the Middle East,...
Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies and Tunisian-French director Erige Sehiri’s Under The Fig Trees have won the top post-production prizes at the Marrakech International Film Festival’s Atlas Workshops talent and project incubator.
The films were among 15 projects in development and nine projects in post-production presented in the fourth edition of the workshops, running online from November 22 to 25 and attended by more than 300 international film professionals.
The post-production jury comprised Nuha Eltayeb, director of content acquisitions for the Middle East,...
- 11/25/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Night Of The Kings made it onto the 15-picture shortlist of the Best International Film category at the Oscars this year.
Memento Films International (Mfi) has unveiled a fresh round of deals for Ivorian-French filmmaker Philippe Lacôte’s Oscar-shortlisted prison drama Night Of The Kings.
The feature has sold to Australia and New Zealand (Rialto), China (Huanxi), Indonesia (Pt Falcon), Mexico (Alameda), Brazil (Telecine).
In Europe, it has been acquired by Switzerland (Xenix), Benelux (Imagine), France (Jhr), Spain (Flamingo) Poland (New Horizons), Romania (Transilvania), Portugal (Alambique) and ex-Yugoslavia (Kino Mediteran).
These acquisitions follow its previously announced sale to Neon for...
Memento Films International (Mfi) has unveiled a fresh round of deals for Ivorian-French filmmaker Philippe Lacôte’s Oscar-shortlisted prison drama Night Of The Kings.
The feature has sold to Australia and New Zealand (Rialto), China (Huanxi), Indonesia (Pt Falcon), Mexico (Alameda), Brazil (Telecine).
In Europe, it has been acquired by Switzerland (Xenix), Benelux (Imagine), France (Jhr), Spain (Flamingo) Poland (New Horizons), Romania (Transilvania), Portugal (Alambique) and ex-Yugoslavia (Kino Mediteran).
These acquisitions follow its previously announced sale to Neon for...
- 5/19/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Lesotho has entered the Academy Awards race for the first time with the selection of Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection” for best international feature film at the 2021 Oscars, Variety has learned.
Set in the small Southern African nation, “This Is Not a Burial” is the story of an 80-year-old widow whose village is threatened with forced resettlement when local authorities announce the construction of a nearby dam. The widow’s desire to protect her home — and the cemetery where her family members are buried — sparks a resistance movement in her community, while exposing the fault lines in a country torn between an agrarian past and a relentless push for development.
“This Is Not a Burial” premiered last year in Venice’s Biennale College strand before winning a special jury prize for “visionary filmmaking” in Sundance’s international competition. In a glowing review, Variety...
Set in the small Southern African nation, “This Is Not a Burial” is the story of an 80-year-old widow whose village is threatened with forced resettlement when local authorities announce the construction of a nearby dam. The widow’s desire to protect her home — and the cemetery where her family members are buried — sparks a resistance movement in her community, while exposing the fault lines in a country torn between an agrarian past and a relentless push for development.
“This Is Not a Burial” premiered last year in Venice’s Biennale College strand before winning a special jury prize for “visionary filmmaking” in Sundance’s international competition. In a glowing review, Variety...
- 11/10/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
New initiative aims to develop and empower African producers.
Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson has joined a new initiative that aims to develop and empower African producers.
Jackson will be one of several speakers at the inaugural Creative Producer Indaba training programme and will help build the leadership skills of participants.
Further speakers include Cara Mertes, project director of moving image strategies at the Ford Foundation, and Makhosazana Khanyile, CEO of the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa (Nfvf).
There will also be sessions with international producers and experts, including Iffr’s Hubert Bals fund manager Fay Breeman,...
Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson has joined a new initiative that aims to develop and empower African producers.
Jackson will be one of several speakers at the inaugural Creative Producer Indaba training programme and will help build the leadership skills of participants.
Further speakers include Cara Mertes, project director of moving image strategies at the Ford Foundation, and Makhosazana Khanyile, CEO of the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa (Nfvf).
There will also be sessions with international producers and experts, including Iffr’s Hubert Bals fund manager Fay Breeman,...
- 9/1/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The dearth of African contenders in the main competition at this year’s Berlinale might come as no surprise to the continent’s perennially disappointed filmmakers. One could argue — not unfairly — that Africa is still underrepresented at the world’s top film festivals.
But you wouldn’t have to look hard to find emerging African voices in festival strands like Berlin’s Panorama, Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema, or Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. That many of these films are from first- and second-time directors bodes well for a continent still grappling to reclaim its own narrative.
Three years after Senegal’s Alain Gomis won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for his Kinshasa-set drama “Félicité,” other kudos for African filmmakers have followed. The past 12 months alone have seen Sudanese director Suhaib Gasmelbari’s documentary “Talking About Trees” scoop a pair of prizes in last year’s Berlinale; Sudan’s Amjad Abu Alala...
But you wouldn’t have to look hard to find emerging African voices in festival strands like Berlin’s Panorama, Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema, or Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. That many of these films are from first- and second-time directors bodes well for a continent still grappling to reclaim its own narrative.
Three years after Senegal’s Alain Gomis won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for his Kinshasa-set drama “Félicité,” other kudos for African filmmakers have followed. The past 12 months alone have seen Sudanese director Suhaib Gasmelbari’s documentary “Talking About Trees” scoop a pair of prizes in last year’s Berlinale; Sudan’s Amjad Abu Alala...
- 2/20/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Memento Films Intl. has picked up world sales rights for “This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s fiction feature debut, which will have its international premiere in Sundance next month. Memento acquired the film through Artscope, its world cinema arthouse label.
“This Is Not a Burial” is the story of an 80-year-old widow whose village is threatened with forced resettlement when local authorities announce the construction of a nearby dam. The widow’s desire to protect her home, and the cemetery where her family members are buried, sparks a resistance movement in her community. Mosese described the film, which will screen in Sundance’s world dramatic competition, as “a story about the resilience of the human spirit.”
Mosese drew on real-life events for the film, which is set in his native land, the small southern African country of Lesotho. “This Is Not a...
“This Is Not a Burial” is the story of an 80-year-old widow whose village is threatened with forced resettlement when local authorities announce the construction of a nearby dam. The widow’s desire to protect her home, and the cemetery where her family members are buried, sparks a resistance movement in her community. Mosese described the film, which will screen in Sundance’s world dramatic competition, as “a story about the resilience of the human spirit.”
Mosese drew on real-life events for the film, which is set in his native land, the small southern African country of Lesotho. “This Is Not a...
- 12/5/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Pluto Film takes rights to Cape Town-set drama.
Berlin-based sales outfit Pluto Film Distribution has picked up rights to South African debut feature The Tree.
The film is from producers Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw of Urucu Media, whose previous feature The Wound premiered at Sundance 2017 in the World Competition strand and also played as the opening film of Berlinale Panorama that year. The film was South Africa’s foreign language Oscar entry for 2018 and made the shortlist.
The Tree marks the debut of writer-director Louw Venter. Production is now underway in South Africa and is scheduled to wrap imminently.
Berlin-based sales outfit Pluto Film Distribution has picked up rights to South African debut feature The Tree.
The film is from producers Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw of Urucu Media, whose previous feature The Wound premiered at Sundance 2017 in the World Competition strand and also played as the opening film of Berlinale Panorama that year. The film was South Africa’s foreign language Oscar entry for 2018 and made the shortlist.
The Tree marks the debut of writer-director Louw Venter. Production is now underway in South Africa and is scheduled to wrap imminently.
- 10/31/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Five titles from six filmmakers were chosen from more than 130 entries.
Realness, the African screenwriting residency created by Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw of Urucu Media, has selected the projects for its 2018 edition.
Taking part in this year’s programme are Kantarama Gahigiri (Tapis Rouge) and Kivu Ruhorahoza (Grey Matter) from Rwanda, Matthys Boshoff (Flesh Of My Flesh) from South Africa, Ng’endo Mukii (Yellow Fever) from Kenya and Reem Morsi (The Door) and Mohammed Siam (Whose Country?), both from Egypt.
The participants were selected by a panel of 16 industry figures, including sales agents Thembe Bhebhe and Efuru Flowers (Flourishing Films...
Realness, the African screenwriting residency created by Elias Ribeiro and Cait Pansegrouw of Urucu Media, has selected the projects for its 2018 edition.
Taking part in this year’s programme are Kantarama Gahigiri (Tapis Rouge) and Kivu Ruhorahoza (Grey Matter) from Rwanda, Matthys Boshoff (Flesh Of My Flesh) from South Africa, Ng’endo Mukii (Yellow Fever) from Kenya and Reem Morsi (The Door) and Mohammed Siam (Whose Country?), both from Egypt.
The participants were selected by a panel of 16 industry figures, including sales agents Thembe Bhebhe and Efuru Flowers (Flourishing Films...
- 5/25/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
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