Initiatives from South Africa, Cape Verde and Zimbabwe had been among the many large winners on the sixteenth version of the Durban FilmMart (DFM), which wrapped this week.
This yr’s market was attended by 1,364 filmmakers and business professionals from 63 nations, and culminated within the presentation of 39 awards for tasks targeted on African storytelling—together with growth grants, co-production alternatives, competition invites, and business mentorships.
Cape Verde documentary undertaking Plastic Atlantis, concerning the hyperlink between slavery and ocean air pollution in Cape Verde, received six prizes together with the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund New Voices Award, a Local weather Story Labs award, plus prizes from OIF-ACP-EU, Sheffield Doc Fest, DOC-A and Ladies Make Films. It’s directed by Samira Vera-Cruz and produced by Pedro Soulé by way of Cape Verde-based Kriolscope (KS).
Zimbabwean function documentary Golden received three prizes: a Purple Sea Movie Fund award, a Canal+ growth grant, and the DOK.fest München award. The documentary traces Zimbabwe ladies’s nationwide hockey workforce’s street to the 2025 Ladies’s FIH Hockey Junior World Cup – 45 years after the nation’s solely Olympic medal in a workforce sport. It’s directed by Rumbi Katedza and produced by Rumbi Katedza and Ingrid Martens by way of Mai Jai Movies.
South African darkish comedy undertaking The Second Coming, a couple of man satisfied he’s the Messiah, received three prizes together with a Purple Sea Movie Fund award, a Nationwide Movie and Video Basis of South Africa (NFVF) greatest fiction grant, and the Inkaba Award. The Second Coming is directed by Durban-based Michael James and produced by Siyabonga Xaba of Maverick Resistance.
“We’re delighted to have hosted such a dynamic array of filmmakers from throughout the African continent. They entrusted us with their tasks and concepts, and generously shared their time, experience, and fervour by way of enriching conversations, creating a very African occasion,” stated Magdalene Reddy, director of the Durban FilmMart Institute (DFMI).
DFM 2025, befell from 18 – 21 July in Durban.