The 36th edition of the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is scheduled to hold from July 16 to 26, 2015. The film festival which features films from around the world especially those from South Africa and Africa is now calling for film submissions. DIFF is one of the oldest and largest film festival in Southern Africa and presents over 200 screenings celebrating the best in South African, African and International cinema. The festival offers many competition sections and some of the prizes have cash attached.
The international film festival will be presenting over 250 screenings of current films from around the world, with strong focus on South African and African cinema. Screenings take place throughout Durban including township areas where cinemas are non-existent. The festival also runs extensive seminar and workshop programmes featuring local and international filmmakers and industry professionals in order to enhance industry capacity. This includes the participation of 40 filmmakers from Africa in Talent Campus Durban (July 17 to 21), cooperation with the Berlin Film Festival, and the Durban FilmMart (July 17 to 21) a film financing initiative in partnership with Durban Film Office.
The films to be considered are those completed in 2014 and 2015 and entries attract no charge. Submissions will be accepted with either a DVD SCREENER or an ONLINE SCREENER. All submissions must be made via the DIFF Visitor Page online at vp.eventival.eu/cca. To make a submission, an account needs to be created on the website if this has not already been done in previous years. The deadline for all entries (short films, documentaries and feature fiction films), including delivery of screeners is March 20, 2015.
A focus on climate change will be included in the specific streams of programming in 2015 as well as films that explore our relationship with the earth’s changing ecology. Peter Machen, the festival manager says “We are very excited about receiving a wealth of challenging and high quality films from around the world. We also welcome engagement with current and potential partners who support the development of cinema in Africa and beyond. Such collaboration is a major part of the festival and helps to provide filmmakers and the public with a programme of brilliant films and a solid development programme.”
For more information check out the festival Submission FAQs or visit: www.durbanfilmfest.co.za or email diff@ukzn.ac.za
