South Africa is set to host the 2018 BRICS Film Festival – one of the events aligned to the tenth annual 2018 BRICS Summit, an international relations conference attended by the heads of state or heads of government of its five member states: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The Film Festival, which will take place in Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, was an idea that came out of the Summit, at which an agreement was signed between the governments of the BRICS states on co-operation in the field of culture.
Durban’s Playhouse will host carefully selected leaders in the film and creative industries of the BRICS nations, which will each have a day to showcase five of their best, most recent films of any genre. Two of the five films screened each day will be competition entries, with the best films – chosen by a combined panel of experts from each country – being awarded at the closing event on July 27.
The Festival will run from July 22 to 27, and is a companion event to other film-themed events taking place across the city over the same time. These include Durban International Film Festival, Durban FilmMart, Wavescapes, and the Nature Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers Congress (NEWF).
The film industry is a growing sector for tourism, with the promotion that accompanies new films and their actual filming, attracting international visitors, commented CEO of Cape Town Tourism Enver Duminy, in an article published on Tourism Update, on Cape Town gaining traction as a film tourism hub. The hosting of an event of this scale is further testament to the emergence of film tourism as a drawcard for international tourists.
The opening-night films will honour global icon, Nelson Mandela, with five, five-minute short films being produced and shown by the respective countries. The theme for the films is ‘Mandela’, with each country’s film reflecting the uniqueness of the country, as well as how each member country relates to Mandela and the impact he had through leadership, politics, humanity, culture, and unity.
