How Nelson Mandela affected the Sou African film industry

The countrys sector has gone through much change since the end of Apartheid, attracting Hollywood productions and creating homegrown successes. The death of Nelson Mandela has put South Africa and its political past and future back in the headlines.

But its film industry has also gone through much change since the end of Apartheid that saw Mandela, often referred to by his Xhosa clan name Madiba or as tata, or father of the nation, become president 1994-1999.

After the democratic elections that put the anti-Apatheid fighter into political office, South Africa focused on developing its infrastructure and the skill sets of its film crews. It has in recent years grown its production infrastructure, such as the cutting-edge Cape Town Film Studios that opened in 2010, established production incentives in 2004, which have been improved since then.

Among them are Clint Eastwoods 2009 drama Invictus, in which Morgan Freeman plays Mandela himself, 2012 comic-book adaptation Dredd, Safe House with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds and upcoming release Mad Max: Fury Road with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.

TV shows have also started shooting in South Africa, such as Michael Bays Black Sails for Starz, which is set up at Cape Town Film Studios.

When the Cannes film festival closed this year with French crime drama Zulu, starring Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker, South Africa added its latest feather to its cap.

The foreign production boom has been feeding the South African production industry in recent years. But it has also started to spill over and boost domestic filmmaking, with homegrown films now reaching a bigger audience.

South African producer and Spier Films managing director Michael Auret said: Nelson Mandela heralded a new dawn for the creative industries in South Africa through which great films have been made and released to the world. Prior to the end of Apartheid, film making was only available to a small white minority and the films only showed one perspective. Over the last 20 years, South Africans have made a number of wonderful films, and the industry continues to grow.

Hollywood still dominates South Africas box office, with local releases historically accounting for less than 5 percent of annual revenue. But last year, South African films hit a market share of 11 percent of the countrys box office.

With that backdrop, South African filmmakers increasingly hope to leave their mark on the global film business.

The country had its first-ever best foreign-language picture Oscar nominee in 2004 with Zulu-language HIV drama Yesterday. A year later, the country won its first-ever Oscar in that same category with Tsotsi, a Zulu-, Xhosa- and Afrikaans-language drama about six days in the violent life of a young gang leader.

South African filmmakers have been looking to tell more homegrown stories for local and foreign audiences.

Lance Samuels of Out of Africa Entertainment, a producer acquired last year by Toronto-based Blue Ice Group, is one of the South Africans telling more homegrown stories. He worked on 2010 comedy Schuks Tshabalalas Survival Guide to South Africa, the biggest local South African box-office hit ever.

Out of Africa and Blue Ice have also been working on a Mandela project, a six-part TV biopic structured as a Canadian-South African co-production.

If it werent for (Mandelas) creative spirit and legacy of storytelling, Out of Africa Entertainment and most other industry players would not have an industry to speak of, Samuels told THR this summer. His resilience in the struggle only made it that much more important to get films out of South Africa made and seen.

He added: Economically, Mandelas commitment to growing the film industry in South Africa saw the birth of groundbreaking incentive schemes, schemes that are now as good as any in the world.

Samuels and Nico Dekker, CEO of Cape Town Film Studios, say South Africa is proud to have continued to attract Hollywood productions, but the indigenous industry continues to face challenges that it is looking to address.

Box-office competition from Hollywood blockbusters and finding a wide audience in a country with 11 indigenous languages make it tougher to achieve success with local films across the country - and even harder to export them. It is difficult for films to recoup their cost in South Africa [from ticket sales] alone, Samuels explained.

Triggerfish Animation Studios CEO Stuart Forrest and his team at what has been dubbed the Pixar of South Africa have set their eyes beyond their own country. Their first feature, Zambezia, starring the voices of Samuel L. Jackson and others, had success at home and in select foreign markets. I believe it is the highest-grossing South African-owned film in around 30 years, he told THR earlier this year.

Khumba, starring the voices of Liam Neeson, Laurence Fishburne and Steve Buscemi, features a half-striped zebra that gets shunned by its horde. It has also done good business since its recent launch.

Triggerfish has been focusing on planning a slate of five films and raising financing for them, with Forrest saying the studio wants to bring more African stories to the broader world.

Its impossible to overestimate the impact that Mandela had on building a nation in which all citizens can be proud, Forrest told THR after the freedom fighters death. We live in this legacy everyday, and as our nations history has been transformed, this change has permeated our storytelling and created a new voice in the world.

Madiba contributed immensily to the transformation of this country, a contribution that led to our people gaining a voice to speak freely and to tell the story of South Africa, echoed National Film and Video Foundation CEO Zama Mkosi. Many stories have been told about his legacy, A Letter to Nelson Mandela, The Release of Mandela, The Long Walk to Freedom,

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