International movie experts explore SA opportunities

Hoosen

An international delegation of some 19 companies has embarked on a national tour of South Africa’s leading location centres.

This mission has been organised by the Department of Trade and Industry's InvestSA initiative and comprises of 20 prominent producers and directors from Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The Cape Town leg has been organised together with the City of Cape Town, from which Wesgro's Film and Media Promotion Unit receives its film promotion mandate.

The delegation will continue on to the 29th Durban International Film Festival, before finishing in Johannesburg.

The Cape Town leg included a speed dating session with nearly 70 local producers, two networking functions and tours of four local studios, Silverline 360, Triggerfish Animation Studio, Atlantic Film Studios and Cape Town Film Studios.

Partners in this inbound mission include the National Film and Video Foundation, KZN Film Commission, Durban Film Mart, Gauteng Film Commission and the South African consulate in Toronto. The Durban leg includes project meetings and participation at the Durban Film Mart, Durban International Film Festival set and sight visits. Following the programme in Durban the delegation departs for Johannesburg where presentations and Business to Business Meeting will held at the Gauteng Invest SA One Stop Shop followed by a sight visit to the Tshimologong Digital Content Hub and Skyrink Studios.

Yunus Hoosen, Acting Head of InvestSA at the dti says, "Invest SA’s mandate is to attract foreign direct investment into South Africa to stimulate the growth of the economy and job creation. The film industry has been highlighted as one of our growth sectors, where InvestSA has supported South African producers in efforts of attracting partnerships abroad. This inward mission builds on the work undertaken with other government stakeholders and has been coordinated to assist in bringing television series and film projects to be made in South Africa. This will allow local content creators and servicing companies the opportunity of partnering with international producers from Canada, Germany, UK, Netherlands and the USA and further support the dti in its objectives of attracting foreign direct investment and stimulating job creation.”

He adds that the mission will give the delegation of international producers the opportunity of seeing first hand SA’s world class facilities and locations and allow them to interact with South African talent and world class crews, many of which have already worked on international feature films and television series.