CTIFMF 2018: Create. Collaborate. Celebrate

Sharlto Copley and Jehad Kasu.

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The Cape Town International Film Market and Festival will take place from 9 to 19 October 2018 at venues across the V & A Waterfront as well as in select sites across the city of Cape Town.

The CTIFMF 2018 is a film industry platform to create, collaborate, and celebrate the exciting and often untapped potential of this eclectic industry. Guided by the festival's core vision of transforming the African film industry through these the pillars of creation, collaboration, and celebration, the CTIFMF will be incorporating a host of key initiatives and projects aimed at the local and Pan-African film industries, film lovers across the city, as well as emerging and new audiences from across Africa and beyond.

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CTIFMF executive chairman Rafiq Samsodien has the following to say of this year's festival; We are leading the charge to re-build this industry from the bottom up. This year will see the birth of an entirely new way of collaborating and working towards a common goal for a sustainable industry. So let's start by building meaningful partnerships that enable and empower the spirit of filmmaking and the filmmakers.

Create

Creation within the film industry is not limited to content, but extends to relationships too. For filmmakers, the creation of both content and relationships is essential. However, with mounting business, financial, and logistical challenges faced by filmmakers, it is harder than ever for them to focus on their core creative function.

The CTIFMF is in-and-of-itself a platform created to converge the African film industry at a single point at which these stakeholders will have unfettered access to create new business, personal and strategic relationships as well as opportunities.

Core programmess at the CTIFMF 2018 will focus on supporting filmmakers in specific areas including the hosting a gathering of the Emerging Talent Labs from across Africa. The aim of this is to foster the launch of an African Film Institute, a partnership between Ouaga Film Lab (West), Maisha Film Lab (East), Carthage Pro (North) and Realness & Electric South (South), that will have a sizable footprint, real credibility, and extensive access to talent in all corners of the continent.

CTIFMF marketing director Jehad Kasu explains further: Innovation is the cornerstone of the team's endeavours to transform the landscape of the African film industry at the levels of ownership as well as industry stature. While some of what we are doing may have been done at other festivals before, the manner in which we are doing it within our platform is remarkably different. It is this difference in innovation that we trust will steadily build the CTIFMF to establish itself as Africa's leading film industry platform.

Collaborate

The African film industry needs collaboration. Supporting colleagues, promoting our own stories, and finding innovative solutions together in the face of adversity must be the hallmark of our industries. However, the South African film industry is largely very fractured and the emergence of a Pan-African industry is more dream than reality.

While competition is healthy, industry events and businesses that solely compete with one another, rather than complementing each other, makes for a situation that threatens the industry's sustainability - let alone growth.

Collaboration means local collaboration with filmmakers, film schools, government, business, and other allied industry bodies such as tourism authorities, investors, and community organisations. Collaboration means a sharing of skills, an amplification of resources, and a support of people and organisations amongst the emerging filmmaker community.

To embody the spirit of collaboration, the CTIFMF is inviting the festival directors of some of Africa's top film festivals to join together in a day of discussions, practical networking amongst filmmakers, and a sharing of awardwinning films.

This collaborative effort strives to enhance connectivity between South Africa and its African counterparts, to unlock co-production opportunities, identify synergies and provide traction to projects in the making.

Celebrate

The CTIFMF believes that celebrating our industry's best and brightest is essential. Celebration is the best way to reward hard work and perseverance. Celebrating achievers is a way to highlight our stories and inspiring and motivating new talent.

This year the CTIFMF will celebrate local content from South Africa and Africa in public spaces through a series of public screenings that will be presented at the V&A Waterfront's amphitheatre and beyond. Red carpet premieres and a host of related public events will ensure that the African narrative is celebrated throughout the year, and not just during the CTIFMF. We are excited about making a landmark announcement on this component of our programme in coming weeks, adds Kasu.

The City of Cape Town's mayoral committee member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith has this to say of this initiative: The City of Cape Town is proud to be associated with the CTIFMF's plan to revive the local film industry. Off the back of our successes, let us collaborate and build on these and tell our African stories, loudly and proudly. It is time to be up there on the global stage amid the big names of the world. The City will fully support the initiatives of the industry.

Throughout this year's CTIFMF the film industry, those hoping to enter the industry, and those who just love the movies will all have something to celebrate.

Visit the CTIFMF website for updates as the festival approaches.

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LINK:	http://www.screenafrica.com/2018/06/18/film/business/the-cape-town-int...
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