The anticipated goldrush for African creators sparked by Netflix’s 2016 entry into the market hasn’t entirely come to fruition, though the influx of investment from local and global streaming platforms has nevertheless been transformative for Africa’s screen industries. Budgets, production values and outputs are rising, and breakout hits — such as Netflix’s Nigerian thriller “The Black Book” and South African teen drama “Blood & Water” — highlight the power of global streaming services to deliver African stories to audiences around the world.
Yet as evidenced by Amazon Prime Video’s abrupt pullout from the African market in January, when the streaming giant announced it was shifting course to focus on “emerging” markets in Europe, a continent that was gearing up for the windfalls of blockbuster deals with deep-pocketed platforms also finds itself at the mercy of those companies’ sometimes fickle streaming strategies. “It feels much more like a studio system,...
Yet as evidenced by Amazon Prime Video’s abrupt pullout from the African market in January, when the streaming giant announced it was shifting course to focus on “emerging” markets in Europe, a continent that was gearing up for the windfalls of blockbuster deals with deep-pocketed platforms also finds itself at the mercy of those companies’ sometimes fickle streaming strategies. “It feels much more like a studio system,...
- 3/4/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The sixth edition of the Joburg Film Festival wraps Sunday, putting a bow on a week that saw many in the host nation reflecting on South Africa’s long journey in the three decades since the end of apartheid. But among the filmmakers and executives taking part in the second Jbx content market the focus was squarely on the future, as Africa’s streaming wars and an eye toward global dealmaking highlighted how the tide has begun to shift in how the world perceives the continent. “What a time to be alive in Johannesburg,” said festival founder Timothy Mangwedi at Saturday’s award ceremony. “What a time to be alive in Africa.”
Here are five takeaways from a busy week in Johannesburg:
Streamers shift strategies but still drive growth
Amazon Prime Video’s abrupt pull-out from the African market in January has left many local producers frustrated and confused. “It...
Here are five takeaways from a busy week in Johannesburg:
Streamers shift strategies but still drive growth
Amazon Prime Video’s abrupt pull-out from the African market in January has left many local producers frustrated and confused. “It...
- 3/3/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
As South Africa marks three decades since its first democratic elections, a historic moment that dismantled the apartheid system and ushered in Black-majority rule, the country is at a crossroads. Inequality is rife. Crippling blackouts have pushed the economy to a tipping point. The ruling African National Congress — the party of Nelson Mandela — is in crisis, at peril of losing nationwide elections this year for the first time since it swept to power. For many South Africans, the heady promises of that democratic transition have largely been left unfulfilled.
It is a moment of reflection and uncertainty, too, for the country’s film and TV industry, which amid the broader soul-searching is still striving to find its identity. “In many ways, you can say the industry is growing. It’s booming,” says Layla Swart of Yellowbone Entertainment, whose credits include the Canal Plus-Showmax epic fantasy drama series “Blood Psalms,...
It is a moment of reflection and uncertainty, too, for the country’s film and TV industry, which amid the broader soul-searching is still striving to find its identity. “In many ways, you can say the industry is growing. It’s booming,” says Layla Swart of Yellowbone Entertainment, whose credits include the Canal Plus-Showmax epic fantasy drama series “Blood Psalms,...
- 3/2/2024
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Showmax content chief Yolisa Phahle has revealed how co-producing with international partners has helped the South Africa-based streamer compete with fierce SVoD competition, as a first trailer for its epic fantasy drama Blood Psalms is today unveiled. You can watch it here below.
Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice. The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.
The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis,...
Blood Psalms, from creators Layla Swart and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka from Yellowbone Entertainment, is a big budget co-production with France’s Canal+ — the latest in several collaborations between the companies — and is billed as Showmax’s “biggest and most ambitious series, completely unlike any other African series you’ve ever seen” by Nomsa Philiso, Executive Head of Programming at the streamer’s parent MultiChoice. The fantasy drama, shot entirely in African languages, has touches of Game of Thrones, set 11,000 years ago in ancient Africa in a world of warring factions and magic.
The synopsis reads: “In Ancient Africa, one thousand days after the fall of Atlantis,...
- 8/17/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
MoJo also finalises deal with HBO on Chateua Vato.
Morris Ruskin, Jordan Walker-Pearlman and Joseph Mellicker’s new production and management company MoJo Global Arts has licensed US rights on last season’s South African Oscar submission Knuckle City to Showtime.
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s film follows an aging professional boxer and his career-criminal brother who is about to be released from prison. The sons of a legendary fighter-turned-gangster team up to create one last shot at fame but encounter more than they bargained for. MoJo Global Arts represents Qubeka.
Ruskin brokered the deal on behalf of MoJo with Helen Huang on behalf of Showtime.
Morris Ruskin, Jordan Walker-Pearlman and Joseph Mellicker’s new production and management company MoJo Global Arts has licensed US rights on last season’s South African Oscar submission Knuckle City to Showtime.
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s film follows an aging professional boxer and his career-criminal brother who is about to be released from prison. The sons of a legendary fighter-turned-gangster team up to create one last shot at fame but encounter more than they bargained for. MoJo Global Arts represents Qubeka.
Ruskin brokered the deal on behalf of MoJo with Helen Huang on behalf of Showtime.
- 7/31/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
Aaa Entertainment handles international sales on South Africa-set boxing drama.
Morris Ruskin and Jordan Walker-Pearlman’s new production and management company MoJo Global Arts will launch North American sales in Toronto on festival selection and boxing drama Knuckle City.
South African writer-director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s film receives its international premiere in Contemporary World Cinema on Saturday Sept. 7 and stars Bongile Mantsai as a struggling boxer who battles the system and his corrupt younger brother with the aim of lifting his family out of poverty.
Layla Swart produced the film, which premiered at Durban International Film festival in July.
Morris Ruskin and Jordan Walker-Pearlman’s new production and management company MoJo Global Arts will launch North American sales in Toronto on festival selection and boxing drama Knuckle City.
South African writer-director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s film receives its international premiere in Contemporary World Cinema on Saturday Sept. 7 and stars Bongile Mantsai as a struggling boxer who battles the system and his corrupt younger brother with the aim of lifting his family out of poverty.
Layla Swart produced the film, which premiered at Durban International Film festival in July.
- 8/30/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
By depicting issues of racism and bigotry in pre-apartheid South Africa, “Sew Winter to My Skin” writer and director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka said he wants to portray everything that “make(s) us the same in humanity, rather than the things that set us apart.”
Following a screening of the 2018 film, South Africa’s Oscar foreign race entry, Qubeka participated in a Q&A moderated by TheWrap CEO and founder Sharon Waxman. Based on true events, “Sew Winter to My Skin” is a Western-style film that follows the violent and emotional last days leading up to South African outlaw John Kepe’s execution in June 1952. Kepe (Ezra Mabengeza), the self-proclaimed “Samson of Boschberg,” was hung for a string of crimes including theft and the murder of a farmworker.
“If you ask me what the film’s about, it’s a love letter to our history. The pain that we live through...
Following a screening of the 2018 film, South Africa’s Oscar foreign race entry, Qubeka participated in a Q&A moderated by TheWrap CEO and founder Sharon Waxman. Based on true events, “Sew Winter to My Skin” is a Western-style film that follows the violent and emotional last days leading up to South African outlaw John Kepe’s execution in June 1952. Kepe (Ezra Mabengeza), the self-proclaimed “Samson of Boschberg,” was hung for a string of crimes including theft and the murder of a farmworker.
“If you ask me what the film’s about, it’s a love letter to our history. The pain that we live through...
- 11/15/2018
- by Alexandra Del Rosario
- The Wrap
Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s “Sew the Winter to My Skin,” about a real mid-century outlaw and his Robin Hood-style exploits, is South Africa’s submission for the foreign-language Oscar race. The movie, which world premiered in the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, was selected by the National Film & Video Foundation (Nfvf) on Friday.
Written and directed by Qubeka, “Winter” is an adventure epic inspired by the story of John Kepe, who eluded authorities in South Africa’s rugged Boschberg Mountains for 12 years as he stole from wealthy white landowners and gave to the black poor. His exploits made him a folk hero to his own people and a public enemy in the eyes of the apartheid government.
The selection committee lauded what it described as “an unmistakable, bold South African voice that tackles historical and contemporary issues, in both South Africa and the world.” Describing Qubeka’s cinematic technique as “visionary and bold,...
Written and directed by Qubeka, “Winter” is an adventure epic inspired by the story of John Kepe, who eluded authorities in South Africa’s rugged Boschberg Mountains for 12 years as he stole from wealthy white landowners and gave to the black poor. His exploits made him a folk hero to his own people and a public enemy in the eyes of the apartheid government.
The selection committee lauded what it described as “an unmistakable, bold South African voice that tackles historical and contemporary issues, in both South Africa and the world.” Describing Qubeka’s cinematic technique as “visionary and bold,...
- 9/21/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Durban — The 9th edition of the Durban FilmMart (Dfm) closed Monday night, with an award ceremony celebrating an exciting crop of African film projects currently in development.
Toni Monty, head of the Durban Film Office and the Dfm, said, “As one of the most important film industry events and film finance platforms on the continent, we are really pleased that we have grown the Dfm substantially this year, with 877 delegates attending. We had over 40 countries participating this year, of which 19 were from Africa. A total number of 52 projects were pitched to potential partners, financiers, filmmakers, producers, distributors and agents during countless meetings.”
She commented: “As one of the most important film industry events and film finance platforms on the continent, we are really pleased that we have grown the Dfm substantially this year, with 877 delegates attending. We had over 40 countries participating this year, of which 19 were from Africa. A total...
Toni Monty, head of the Durban Film Office and the Dfm, said, “As one of the most important film industry events and film finance platforms on the continent, we are really pleased that we have grown the Dfm substantially this year, with 877 delegates attending. We had over 40 countries participating this year, of which 19 were from Africa. A total number of 52 projects were pitched to potential partners, financiers, filmmakers, producers, distributors and agents during countless meetings.”
She commented: “As one of the most important film industry events and film finance platforms on the continent, we are really pleased that we have grown the Dfm substantially this year, with 877 delegates attending. We had over 40 countries participating this year, of which 19 were from Africa. A total...
- 7/24/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Durban — Fresh off the success of their inaugural partnership in 2017, the Durban FilmMart and CaribbeanTales – a group of companies dedicated to the production, distribution and promotion of content from the Caribbean region and its diaspora – have re-upped their agreement for CineFAM – Africa 2.0, a training and mentorship program during this year’s Durban FilmMart that looks to build capacity and create leadership opportunities for South African women of color working in TV.
Coming at a time of increased scrutiny of racial and gender inequality in film and TV industries around the world, CineFAM – Africa provides six South African producers with an intensive training course while offering “the knowledge and the tools and the opportunity” to bring their developing projects to market, according to CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution VP Nicole Brooks. “We really wanted to emphasize film and television content by…diverse women,” she said, calling the incubator “a launching pad” for its participants.
Coming at a time of increased scrutiny of racial and gender inequality in film and TV industries around the world, CineFAM – Africa provides six South African producers with an intensive training course while offering “the knowledge and the tools and the opportunity” to bring their developing projects to market, according to CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution VP Nicole Brooks. “We really wanted to emphasize film and television content by…diverse women,” she said, calling the incubator “a launching pad” for its participants.
- 7/19/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.