Tag Archives: National Film & Video Foundation

Netflix, TikTok launch SA creative project

Global streaming platform Netflix, video-sharing social networking service TikTok and South Africa’s National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) have teamed up to launch a project aimed at helping content creators and filmmakers.

Makhosazana Khanyile

Rising Voices is open to all black South African creators on TikTok, offering training and grants and providing the community with opportunities to make a career out of content creation.

Around 100 creatives will be trained to use the platform to create high-quality content. They will also undergo digital skills training in an intensive boot camp and learn personal branding, how to monetise their account and the importance of catering to a diverse audience.

TikTok content operations manager Boniswa Sidwaba told South Africa’s Independent Online: “South Africa is a market brimming with creative talent from black creators and we are committed to providing the best local support to help amplify the voices of this community. Through this initiative, we will empower these creators to thrive on TikTok and beyond, as we aim to provide them with career-building resources and programmes.”

NFVF CEO Makhosazana Khanyile said: “We are excited to witness the launch of TikTok’s Rising Voices initiative in South Africa. Projects like this one provide black content creators with vast opportunities to further develop their digital skills while learning from some of the industry’s leading content experts.

“We look forward to seeing the incredible content and content creators that will emerge from this programme, and we are confident it will add tremendous value to the film and video industry in South Africa.”

tagged in: , ,

Africa & I, Ayinla win at PAFF

Africa & I

African films Africa & I and Ayinla have emerged winners at the recent Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles.

South African documentary Africa & I (1×90’), directed by Othmane Zolati and Chris Green (Chasing the Sun), follows 20-year-old adventurer Zolati who spent four years walking, cycling and skateboarding his way south through Africa, from Morocco to Cape Town.

The film is produced by Cape Town prodco Both Worlds Pictures (Puppet Nation ZA, Recipes for Love & Murder), in partnership with MultiChoice-owned African streamer Showmax and the National Film & Video Foundation of South Africa. Worldwide sales of Africa & I are handled by Big Media (US) and Paradoxal (France).

Ayinla, directed by Nigerian filmmaker Tunde Kelani, tells the story of Nigerian musician Ayinla Omowura, who used Apala music to address issues in contemporary society, commending and criticising various governmental and individual acts.

Sponsored by the First Bank of Nigeria and distributed by FilmOne (Nigeria), Ayinla will debut soon on Netflix.

At PAFF, the 30th edition of which concluded on May 2, Africa & I won in the Best First Feature Documentary category, while Ayinla took home the Programmers’ Award: Narrative Feature.

On Instagram, Kelani said: “Congratulations to our talents, crew, executive producers, producers, and our rep team in Los Angeles and Pakistan. Thanks and God’s blessings.”

PAFF is a non-profit corporation in Los Angeles that states its goal is to promote cultural understanding among peoples of African descent through exhibiting art and film.

The full list of PAFF 2022 award winner can be found here.

tagged in: , , , , , , , , , ,

Netflix backs $1.9m SA film deal

Global streaming platform Netflix has partnered with Johannesburg-based National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) to invest US$1.9m in the production of South African micro-budget feature films.

Ben Amadasun

The move is aimed at supporting the South African film industry’s recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as alleviate the pressure filmmakers face in raising additional funding and ensure job creation.

SA publication Business Tech noted that each partner will contribute R14m (US$950,000) towards the production of local films that will receive exclusive debuts on Netflix.

The partnership will entail the funding of six local films including four by emerging filmmakers with budgets capped at R4m and two feature films by established filmmakers capped at R6m.

Ben Amadasun, Netflix’s director of content in Africa, said: “The past year has been incredibly difficult with the pandemic hitting so many industries around the world. The creative community that we are a part of has supported us through the good times so we want to help them continue to create the stories our members love. Now we’re excited to take this a step further with this joint fund with NFVF for above-the-line talent.”

NFVF CEO Makhosazana Khanyile added: “The inclusion of digital platforms into our traditional processes can only profit the industry further. We hope that this is a start of a long and fruitful relationship.”

The submission portal for funding will go live on April 1 and all filmmakers can apply here in accordance with the eligibility criteria.

tagged in: , , , ,

NFVF picks Barakat for 2022 Oscars

Barakat

The National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) has chosen the movie Barakat as South Africa’s official submission for Best International Feature at the 94th Academy Awards next year.

Barakat is a 2020 South African family drama directed by Amy Jephta and produced by Ephraim Gordon. It deals with family problems where an aging matriarch aims to bring together her fractured family over Eid-al-Fitr to break the news about her new romance.

According to MultiChoice broadcaster M-Net, the movie is told in Afrikaaps, the widely spoken Cape dialect of the Afrikaans language, and Jephta is the fourth female director to be submitted to the Oscars by South Africa, and the first woman of colour.

The film stars Vinette Ebrahim, Joey Rasdien, Mortimer Williams, Keeno-Lee Hector, Danny Ross, Quanita Adams and Bonnie Mbuli.

Jephta said: “I am so proud that our small story about a family has reached as many people as it has. To be recognised by South Africa in this way is incredibly special after an extremely challenging year for our film industry.”

“This selection was totally unexpected, but it shows that everyone’s hard work on this project has paid off. This film was a blessing from the beginning and continues to be. It is our Barakat,” added Gordon.

Next year’s Oscars will be presented on March 27.

The movie was released in South African cinemas in May 2021 and on BoxOffice by pay TV platform DStv in June 2021. It has won seven international awards so far, including Best International Feature at the 2021 Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema and Best Narrative Feature at both the Motion Pictures International Film Festival and The Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Festival in 2020.

Barakat was developed in partnership with kykNET, a MultiChoice-owned channel, and funded in association with The Department of Trade, Industry & Competition, the NFVF, The Industrial Development Corporation and Indigenous Film Distribution, the film’s South African distributor.

The movie can be watched on kykNET on December 18 at 20.00.

tagged in: , , , , , , ,

Joint Dutch, South African fund launched

The Netherlands Film Fund and the National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) in South Africa have launched a co-development fund to jointly provide script support for film and documentary projects.

Bero Beyer

The Thuthuka fund aims to support projects that are potentially of high cinematographic quality and of interest to cinema audiences in both the Netherlands and South Africa, as well as to international cinema audiences and film festivals.

A total of four projects will be supported each year in the animated feature film and documentary genres. The annual budget of the fund is €160,000 (US$190,000), with each party contributing half.

Bero Beyer, CEO of the Netherlands Film Fund, said: “The word ‘thuthuka’ means growth and development. We are trying to foster creative collaborations between the South African and Netherlands film teams to develop their ideas.”

Makhosazana Khanyile, CEO of the NFVF, added: “We see this as an opportunity to strengthen the treaty relationship but also enable films from the two countries to have an opportunity to reach global audiences.”

tagged in: , , , ,

NFVF, TikTok award $60k to creators

The National Film & Video Foundation (NFVF) of South Africa and social networking service TikTok have selected the 20 creators who will receive a total of ZAR860,000 (US$60,000) under their Rising Voices initiative.

Makhosazana Khanyile

This follows the first edition of the six-week Rising Voices incubator programme, which aimed to help creators upgrade their skills for content creation.

The financial support will be accompanied by mentorship including content advice, conceptualising support and 10 pieces of content curation for their individual TikTok pages.

Makhosazana Khanyile, CEO of NFVF, said: “The NFVF is proud to have been chosen to partner TikTok on this groundbreaking initiative. The opportunity to mold young content creators into future entrepreneurs who will learn to take advantage of all forms of media and monetise their ideas is one we were happy to support. Congratulations to all the young people that were chosen to take part and we look forward to future collaborations.

“They came! They saw! They created, and continue to create amazing voices. We are proud to have supported TikTok and want to say ‘heita hola’ to the amazing Rising Voices Class of 2021! Now is the time to show the world what you are made of. Congratulations to the 20 Rising Voices grant recipients, who will receive a cash grant of about ZAR860,000 in total.”

As part of the Rising Voices initiative, the selected creators will be tasked with creating a series of paid content and will be given a one-on-one mentoring session to analyse their content plan.

tagged in: , , , ,