Jehad Kasu, Marketing & Communications director of the Cape Town International Film Market & Festival was recently invited to the 2018 Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF), where he spoke about the continuing partnership between the CTIFMF and China’s Global Max Media Group.

Last year the Cape Town International Film Market and Festival (CTIFMF) announced its collaboration with the China-Africa International Film Festival (CAIFF) that aims to strengthen the exchange of learning culture between China and Africa, through film.

The partnership will not only continue to introduce Chinese cinema to South Africa and vice versa, it is hoped that the two festivals will encourage cooperation in the film sector, making Chinese and African films more available in one another’s regions.

Last year the CTIFMF hosted Chinese dignitaries including Mr Cao Li, acting consul general of the Chinese Consulate-General in Cape Town; Mr Zhang Jian, deputy chairman of Academy Council of Beijing Film Academy; Mr Luo Xubing, deputy director of Overseas Promotion at China Radio International; Ms Wan Minfang, producer of the Chinese film When Africa Meets You; Mr Miles Nan, president of GMMG; and Ms Tao Hong, 2017 Image Ambassador of China Africa International Film Festival.

Kasu was invited this year to speak at the Shanghai International Film Festival about this continuing partnership. His presence at the festival represents the commitment of the CTIFMF to lead the way for South Africa in collaborating not only across Africa, but globally.

As Kasu explained in his speech at SIFF, this partnership is pivoted on the People to People Exchange Mechanism entered into between South Africa and China during 2017 via their respective departments of Arts & Culture, in an effort to exchange knowledge in the fields of inter-alia, tourism, education and culture.

He continued to explain further, “The time has now come for intentions to be converted into action. As such, we call on our respective governments to formalise and expedite an official co-production treaty between South Africa and China. While we understand and appreciate that there are many diplomatic, policy and other considerations that are tangled up in red tape, due diligence and administrative processes, more and more clear evidence demonstrates that the film industry is an underrated catalyst for job creation and economic growth.”

Kasu also reiterated the call that was made at last year’s CTIFMF for the private sector to partner with film promotion agencies, commissions and platforms such as the CTIFMF and SIFF and pledge real resources to a severely underfunded industry in order to fast-track the extraction of sustainable economic, social and cultural value for our respective countries.

The NFVF and the Beijing Film Academy recently entered into a five-year Student Exchange programme and the CTIFMF would like these kinds of collaborative efforts to serve as the training ground for the development of inter-cultural content created between China and South Africa.

To this end, the CTIFMF invites all Chinese film and television stakeholders to visit the CTIFMF between 9 and 19 October 2018, to explore collaborative opportunities with African film industries.

Entries are still open for high quality Chinese films with subtitles to enter the CTIFMF film competition. Last year the festival received more than 800 film competition applications from more than 85 different countries. But very few came from China. At the same time, South African producers are encouraged to submit their works and projects to all future SIFF’s.