Film production South Africa

South Africa has a vibrant, growing film industry that is growing in reputation and is competitive internationally. Local and foreign filmmakers are taking advantage of the country's diverse, unique locations as well as low production costs and favourable exchange rate, which make it cheaper to make a movie here than in Europe or the US. The jewel in the industry's crown is Tsotsi, Gavin Hood's gritty drama about a young gangster in Soweto, near Johannesburg, which won an Academy Award for best foreign language film in 2006. In 2010, District 9 an action-packed science-fiction movie about a sub-class of aliens forced to live in the slums of Johannesburg was nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture. South Africa also has a growing reputation as a producer for award-winning local content, such as Oscar-nominated Yesterday, the story of the struggles of an HIV-positive mother; and U Carmen E Khayalitsha, a Xhosa- language film which won the Golden Bear award at the 2005 Berlin Film Festival. Documentary filmmaker Francois Verster's A Lion's Tale won a non- fiction Emmy in 2006, recognised for its "most outstanding cultural and artistic programming". Building on South Africa's reputation for quality, creative film making, a string of successful big budget international productions have been filmed here, including Fury Road, the fourth Mad Max film; Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio; and Clint Eastwood's Invictus. The Lord of War, the 2005 movie starring Nicholas Cage as a global arms dealer, showcases South Africa's wealth of breath-taking locations with Cape Town appearing as 57 different settings in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Bolivia, Sierra Leone and elsewhere. Opportunities abound, with the makers of movies, commercials and other productions being attracted by South Africa's highly skilled film crews and technicians, excellent technical capacity and infrastructure as well as the good weather.

Contribution to the economy

The government has identified the film industry as a sector with excellent potential for growth, and is regarded as a catalyst for both direct and indirect employment of people from different sectors of the economy. The South African film and television industry contributes around R3.5-billion a year to the country's economy, according to a 2013 study conducted by the National Film and Video Foundation, an agency of the Department of Arts and Culture. In 1995, when the country first became a viable location venue for movie and television production, the industry employed around 4 000 people. This has grown to around 25 000 people. The benefits of a burgeoning film industry are clear, especially when it comes to bringing in foreign exchange. Co-productions with international companies result in the direct investment of millions of rands into the economy. South Africa has signed co-production treaties with eight countries: Canada, Italy, Germany, the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. This means that any official co-production is regarded as a national production of each co-producing country, making it eligible for any benefits or programmes of assistance available in either country. South Africa also has a memorandum of understanding relating to film with India.

Telling South African stories

South Africans have been reclaiming their lost histories and are beginning to tell their own stories. The number of local films is increasing steadily each year. In 2009, 13 titles were released; by 2012 this this number had almost doubled, with 24 South African films released locally. Box office successes include Material, a story of a young Muslim man's quest to make it on the comedy circuit, and Spud, based on John van de Ruit's best-selling book about a boy in a South African boarding school. Spud 2 was due out in 2013. Fanie Fouries Lobola was hailed by Arts Minister Paul Mashatile after it won the audience choice award for the best comedy at the Sedona International Film Festival. South Africa's highest grossing film is Leon Schuster's Schuks Tshabalala, which made R37-million at the box office in 2010. The government has stressed the importance of film in building the country's heritage by telling its own stories, and has set about providing an "enabling regulatory framework" to encourage the production of local content. "South African audiences have come to have a healthy demand for good quality local content as has been noted in television trends, " the National Film and Video Foundation points out. "Some of the most popular television shows are locally produced programmes which regularly enjoy the bulk of the audience share over their international counterparts."