Abilities Durban, a expertise improvement programme in partnership with the Berlin Worldwide Movie Competition, announce the decision for submissions for its 18th version.
Going down in July 2025 in Durban, South Africa, this yr’s Abilities Durban will run alongside the Durban FilmMart, South Africa’s premier movie finance and co-production market.
A singular platform tailor-made to African movie professionals, Abilities Durban has advanced into an important discussion board for creativity, collaboration, and mission improvement. This programme provides rising abilities a chance to community, acquire knowledgeable mentorship, and discover new insights into the craft and enterprise of filmmaking throughout the continent.
Abilities Durban invitations African screenwriters and administrators with fiction, documentary, animation, or hybrid tasks in improvement to use. The programme accepts submissions throughout varied codecs, together with characteristic movies, tv sequence, internet sequence, and cellular content material. Moreover, Abilities Press welcomes functions from rising movie critics and journalists desirous to refine their expertise and reimagine the panorama of movie criticism.
A panel of trade specialists will choose individuals to affix an immersive programme that includes mentorship labs, workshops, and discussions aimed toward enhancing their inventive {and professional} skills. These classes will deal with key disciplines similar to directing, scriptwriting, and movie criticism, providing individuals a complete, hands-on expertise.
“With 17 years of Abilities Durban shaping and provoking African filmmakers, the Durban FilmMart Institute is happy to see this programme develop,” says Magdalene Reddy, Director of the Durban FilmMart Institute. “Expertise improvement is the cornerstone of a thriving movie trade, and Abilities Durban performs a vital position in empowering the following technology of African storytellers. This programme is a testomony to the unimaginable variety and transformative potential inside African cinema.”
This yr’s version combines a web based and bodily programme. Individuals will interact in an 8-week on-line mentorship, culminating in a 4-day summit in Durban.
Abilities Durban provides 4 devoted labs, every tailor-made to particular areas of movie and media:
- Storytelling Lab: Encompassing six characteristic movie scripts, six quick movie scripts, and 4 internet sequence ideas, every guided by knowledgeable mentors to reinforce narrative depth and improvement.
- Animation Lab: Supporting 4 animation tasks, with a deal with mission improvement, character design, and the enterprise elements of animation.
- Doc Lab: Concentrating on six documentary tasks in improvement, providing knowledgeable steering and mentorship.
- Abilities Press: Three rising movie critics will obtain hands-on coaching and mentorship, producing pageant protection via movie critiques, interviews, and social media.
Abilities Durban is open to African residents aged 18 or older by 1 July 2025. The choice course of requires an entire software, together with a pattern of previous work and particulars of a mission in improvement. The first language of the programme is English, with particular classes obtainable for French and Portuguese audio system. DFMI will cowl lodging and accreditation prices for profitable candidates. Individuals might want to organize their very own journey to Durban in July 2025.
The submission window closes on 9 February 2025. Chosen individuals will be part of the web mentorship from Might to July, and attend the in-person Durban FilmMart occasion in July 2025.
Click on right here for extra particulars on software data.