The Cape Town International Film Market and Festival (CTIFMF) will take place from October 9th -19th 2018. While the festival promises to be a feast of film screenings designed to celebrate the best in regional and international cinema, the Market program, taking place from the 10th to the 13th is squarely focused on providing tangible opportunities for filmmakers from across Africa.
In order to focus strongly on content, CTIFMF has developed a program that aims to raise the bar for African films in terms of quality and innovation. The CTIFMF will run a Works in Progress program that will see a maximum of six works in progress selected from the African continent to show to international industry experts.
High caliber decision makers and experts will be hand-picked to screen the selected films to give detailed feedback with the goal to increase the artistic quality and challenge what the core creative teams think about audiences, beyond their own territory.
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 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, The Work Room Audio Post, and and Post Production South Africa.
In order to deliver the most value as possible to attendees, the CTIFM has secured participation from a range of top industry experts from home and abroad. Experts from the Berlinale’s European Film Market and Berlinale Africa Hub, Tribeca, Cannes Director’s Fortnight, TIFF, London BFI; international sales companies such as Pyramide International, Flourishing Films, Talent Agents Casarotto and Curtis Brown, Mnet, Indigenous Films, and Ster Kinekor will all contribute to this program.
CTIFMF market director Elias Ribeiro explains further, “We are honoured to welcome a range of carefully considered experts that can all tangibly assist producers to improve the overall quality of their works in progress. Amongst the professionals who will take part in the works in progress sessions are Cynthia Okoye from Curtis Brown, David Kayser from Casarotto & Ramsay Associates, Eric Lagesse, head of acquisitions from Pyramide International, South African producer and Story Consultant Mmabatho Kau, and Themba Bhebhe, sales executive at Flourishing Films.
This program will prove to be a unique and invaluable opportunity and we encourage filmmakers from across Africa and the rest of the continent to apply.”
Cynthia Okoye joined Curtis Brown in 2008 having freshly graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in Law (LLB). In 2013 she began to build her own list of writers, directors and filmmakers from the ground up.
Curtis Brown is one of the world’s leading literary and talent agencies. They represent authors, playwrights, film and television writers and directors, theatre directors and designers, television and radio presenters and actors. Their film portfolio includes – Broken, London Road and The Ones Below, all for BBC Films.
David Kayser is South African and is a talent agent at Casarotto Ramsay & Associates – one of the world’s leading creative agencies, representing writers, directors, dramatic rights to books & estates across film, TV and theatre.
Casarotto clients include Steve McQueen, Hope Dickson-Leach, Jack Thorne, Lenny Abrahamson, Lucy Kirkwood, Sibs Shongwe-La Mer, Caryl Churchill, Joachim Trier, Sarah Gavron, Phyllis Nagy, David Yates, Kelly Marcel, Terry Gilliam, and the estates of JG Ballard, Roald Dahl, Joe Orton, and Tennessee Williams, to name a few.
David explains his reason for getting involved, “I’m extremely passionate about African storytelling – the voices that are coming out of South Africa and beyond at the moment are hugely exciting for the industry-at-large. I am incredibly honoured to be a part of the forums at this year’s festival and look forward to taking part and immersing myself in what promises to be a fantastic platform for South African talent.”
Eric Lagesse, Head of Acquisitions from Pyramide International, will serve as a mentor to the works in progress-selected projects. He will work with the director and producer on the current edits and hopefully help them find an even better version of their film still in the making.
Eric will be joined in those feedback sessions by Mmabatho Kau, a story consultant who has produced a wide variety of shows in public service and commercial pay for various broadcasters in South Africa.
Drawing on almost a decade of experience in international sales, Themba Bhebhe is a British-born international sales executive for L.A-based sales agency, Flourishing Films, a boutique international sales agent, production company and North American distributor specialising in global filmed content with a particular focus on Black content from across the African Diaspora. Themba also works seasonally for the Berlinale’s European Film Market as Diversity Liaison Officer.
