The 3rd BRICS Film Festival is set to kick off this July (22 – 27 July 2018) in Durban
South Africa has assumed the BRICS rotational chairpersonship for 2018, succeeding the People’s Republic of China. The year 2018 completes the first decade of BRICS Summit. South Africa will host the 10th BRICS Summit and the 3rd BRICS Film Festival. As a member of BRICS, South Africa through the Department of Arts and Culture (DAC) will take over the responsibilities of hosting the 3rd BRICS Film Festival. The DAC has requested the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) in its capacity as the national film funding body to implement the festival.
The film festival is aimed at celebrating world-class film productions from the BRICS nations with the objective of inspiring more collaborations from these nations. The format of the festival consists of screening two feature films from each country in the competition category and three feature films in the non-competition category. A total of twenty five films will be screened during the duration of the festival. The films in competition will compete for the Golden Rhino award, inspired by the history behind the golden rhino that was discovered in Mapungubwe, the significance of the place, and the linkages with other countries in earlier centuries.
The 3rd BRICS Film Festival will recognise the following categories:
- · Best Film
- · Best Producer/s
- · Best Director
- · Best Scriptwriter/Screenplay writer
- · Best Actor,
- · Best Actress,
- · Best Supporting Actor,
- · Best Supporting Actress,
- · Best Editor,
- · Best Cinematography/Director of Photography (DOP)
- · Best Composer/Music,
- · As well as a special Jury award.
The Playhouse will play host to all the BRICS Film Festival activities, with the opening night on the evening of the 22nd of July 2018 and closing night on the 27th of July 2018. The opening night films will honour Nelson Mandela’s centenary. The films will be five, 5-minute short films produced by the respective countries under the facilitation of a South African production company, Via- Vollenhoven and Appollis Independent. The theme for the films is, “Mandela” and the film from each country reflects the uniqueness of the country, as well as how each member country relates to Nelson Mandela and the impact he had through leadership, politics, humanity, culture, and unity.
The rest of the programme will occur concurrently to the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). And will consist of a South Africa Forum day during the Durban FilmMart on the 23rd of July 2018 in collaboration with the Independent Black Filmmakers Collective (IBFC) and the official country days taking place between the 24th and the 27th of July 2018 including a program of excursion around Durban for the delegation.
The Department of Arts and Culture is resolute in working towards the elevation of Cultural Industries and we see the audio-visual sector as an important platform from which to continue these efforts. We forward to harnessing the learning and experiences generated by this festival that drives the industry. We look forward to harnessing the learning and experiences generated by this film festival.