Eulalia Snyman

I can’t help but notice that lately I have been watching more South African movies than ever before.

It’s just that I enjoy them so much; the stories are so good. Fortunately, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) believes that international audiences will feel the same. The foundation, in association with the Department of Arts and Culture, left yesterday with a delegation of SA film makers to attend the 65th Cannes International Film Festival.

With some 130 film makers, this year’s delegation is the largest ever. Of these film makers, 11 have been sponsored by the NFVF, which has been mandated by Parliament to spearhead the development of the local film and video industry.

“South Africa’s growing participation at international level, including at Cannes, demonstrates that our film makers are global competitors in the field, and their projects are authentic stories that resonate in the international market place,” says the foundation’s Zama Mkosi.

“It is therefore imperative to ensure that the local film industry is adequately supported and well represented in order for our productions and talent to receive the global recognition they deserve.”

In April, South Africa won nine awards at the 2012 Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Nigeria.

Competing against 23 other countries across the continent, SA took the AMAA 2012 prize for Best Film for How To Steal 2 Million.

Azania Muendane, the NFVF head of marketing and public affairs, points out that Cannes is another strategic platform to promote SA as a co-production partner, a film-making destination of choice and a country that tells authentic stories.

“Cannes is recognised as the world’s premier film festival, where the world’s distributors, financiers and programmers buy film projects, negotiate distribution deals and funding,” she says.

This year the NFVF will showcase 12 local feature films and eight documentaries. These include Otelo Burning; Semi-Soet; Blitz Patrollie; 31 Million Reasons; Five Fingers for Marseilles; One Last Look; The Umbrella Man; Tok Tokkie; RollaBall; Sobukwe; Wandering Fever; and I am Craig.

While in Cannes, the Department of Arts and Culture is also to sign a co-production treaty with Ireland. The treaty will enable productions from both territories to qualify for the different incentives associated with home-grown content and enable collaboration between producers.

The first South African co-production treaty was signed with Canada in 1997, and was soon followed by a host of others. Out of these treaties, films such as Skin (SA/UK), The Bang Bang Club (SA/Canada),Death Race (SA/Germany), Skoonheid (SA/France) and A Million Colours (SA/Canada) were produced.

The good news for those who haven’t made it to Cannes, but dream of having a career in the film and television industry, is that the NFVF is offering free part-time training to aspirant script editors.

Script editors are the people responsible for checking the story structure, pacing and characters to ensure that production requirements are being met, and they help to spot and resolve problems in a script.

The Sediba “Spark” Screenwriters Training Programme will be run for five months. It consists of one workshop a month, held during weekends.

Workshops will be held in Joburg. Travel and accommodation for those based outside Gauteng will be arranged and paid for by the NFVF.

Selected individuals will be required to attend a compulsory induction on Friday, June 22 ahead of the first workshop, which is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, June 23 and 24.

To qualify for this free training, you need a relevant tertiary qualification or extensive experience in the film and television industry.

You also need to prove you have experience in writing intellectually challenging and coherent reports, articles and/or essays for a degree programme, newspaper or magazines, a web blog, or va creative or professional writing programme.

You are also required to have a satisfactory understanding of storytelling based on one of the following:

l Study of drama, film, television or literature in a university honours degree course;

l Completion of a screenwriting or script editor’s professional development programme or;

l Experience as a published short story writer, novelist, storyline writer, script writer/ script editor for a television drama series or feature film screenplays.

The NFVF will give preference to applicants who are committed to making a big impact on South African film and television drama and are proficient in at least one of the indigenous South African languages besides English.

l For more information, visit the NFVF website at http://www.nfvf.co.za