Funding takes centre stage at Joburg Film Festival

JOHANNESBURG: Far from the glitz of Cannes and Venice, filmmakers gathered in Johannesburg on Wednesday for South Africa’s premier film festival (Joburg Film Festival), where funding, not films, dominated discussions.

Content creators participated in a series of masterclasses and panel discussions at the Joburg Film Festival aiming to refine strategies to secure much-needed funding and expand professional networks.

Read more: 2024 Cannes Film Festival: Aishwarya Rai on Megalopolis, Greta Gerwig on #MeToo

African cinema is chronically underfunded and under-equipped despite being home to Nigeria’s massive Nollywood industry, which is ahead of Hollywood and second only to India’s Bollywood in number of movies produced.

Many filmmakers were reliant on funding grants but this was risky, said Tebogo Matlawa, head of scripted content at South Africa’s pay TV giant MultiChoice.

“We have to make money. It can’t be a grant industry, it will collapse when the grants stop,” Matlawa said.

“We know the dangers of running an industry on grants. Industry must be self sufficient,” he said, in a veiled reference to US aid cuts that have rocked many sectors in Africa, especially the resource-strained health services.

Africa’s film industry employs around five million people but has the potential for 20 million jobs, according to figures in a 2021 report by the UN cultural agency UNESCO.

The continent’s film and audiovisual sectors generate around $5 billion in annual revenue but have the potential to reach $20 billion, according to the report.

‘Moot ideas’

Elsie Zanele, a 24-year-old film student passionate about romance dramas, said the lack of funding was crippling.

“Most of our beautiful ideas die in the bedroom,” she said. “If you don’t have the money to bring them to life or know the right people, they will remain nothing but moot ideas.”

Content creators in need of income tend to flit across products and businesses to keep afloat but would do better financially by focusing on a niche that they could build, speakers at multiple discussions said.

“What is really challenging is that a lot of creators are just moving from one thing to another. There isn’t really a commitment to anything,” said Sylvester Chauke, founder of a Johannesburg-based public relations agency.

“There is much more appetite and appreciation for the fact that we can really shine more, that we can be more creative.”

Launched in 2016, the Joburg Film Festival is this year expected to draw around 6,000 people for six days of workshops, discussions and screenings, according to organisers.

It offers film and content creators a chance to pitch their work to TV clients and producers, with young creators given the opportunity for one-on-one consultations and group sessions with industry mentors.

Nearly 100 films from across the continent and beyond will be screened, ranging from features, cartoons and short films to film-school projects.

Read more: Berlin Film Festival opening film sends message that migrants welcome, says star

This year’s edition showcases an award-winning documentary about legendary photographer Ernest Cole, who documented the horrors of apartheid South Africa until he was forced into exile in the mid-1960s.

“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” by Haitian director Raoul Peck, who made the Oscar-nominated “I Am Not Your Negro” about US writer James Baldwin, won the best documentary at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.