News : The Durban FilmMart launches its 2022 call for projects

For 13 years now, the Durban FilmMart has been an annual pan-African film financing and co-production event. Designed to create partnerships, promote the development and production of African cinema, the DFM was named in UNESCO’s 2021 report on film trends in Africa as “the best film market on the continent”. Magdalene Reddy, Managing Director of Durban FilmMart Institute says: “Our vision is to drive the growth of the African film industry through the development of film projects and to network African filmmakers on the continent and around the world [. ..] The Durban FilmMart is an important platform for African producers to meet and interact with leading film professionals from around the world.”

DFM Content Shop is a project-oriented digital catalog of films, creating opportunities, inclusivity and championing market access for established filmmakers. The selected projects across the African continent were presented exclusively to a select group of international programmers, specialist sales companies, broadcasters, distributors, exhibitors and talent agencies. Last year, five projects won one-year distribution deals with TRACE Studios as part of the 2021 DFM Awards. The projects were presented in partnership with the digital catalog and the digital platform for film and film projects INCOPRODUCTION. DFM Content Shop 2021 presented 42 short films, documentaries, fictions and web-series to more than 100 decision makers including Bendskins by Narcisse Wandji, From Patrice to Lumumba by Patrick Kabeya among others.

The DFMI will select African projects or co-produced by successful Africans or in post-production counting for the period 2020-2022 in the categories:

• Fiction feature film with a minimum of 55 minutes (project completed or in advanced post-production stage)
• Short fiction film under 55 minutes (project completed or in advanced post-production stage)
• Documentary films in short or feature length (project completed or in advanced post-production stage) Web or TV series (project completed or in advanced post-production stage)

We can find the selection criteria on Durban FilmMart. The deadline for submission is scheduled for February 25, 2022.

Fred Mekono-Ottou (stg)