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The 36^th Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is proud to announce the participants of the 8^th edition of Talents Durban, presented in cooperation with the Berlinale Talents an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival. Talents Durban is a five day development programme made up of workshops and seminars for African filmmakers delivered by film professionals, academics and intellectuals. The Talents, who are selected through a rigorous application process, will also have the opportunity to attend screenings and events at the Festival.

Talents Durban is one of the 6 Talents International programmes formed by Berlinale Talents in Africa and around the world including Talents Beirut in Lebanon, Talents Buenos Aires in Argentina, Talents Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Talents Tokyo in Japan and Talents Guadalajara in Mexico.

40 filmmakers from 10 countries across the continent including South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Zambia and Cameron will be in attendance.

The following are the selected participants of Talents:

Oluwakemi Adesoye (Nigeria), Ssenkumba Adnan (Uganda), Lawrence Agbetsise (Ghana), Isabella Akinseye (Nigeria), Kassim Braimah (Nigeria), Bentley Brown (Tunisia), Lucky Nhlanhla Cele (South Africa), Karien Cherry (South Africa), Joanne Corrigall (South Africa), Angeline Dimingo (Zimbabwe), Daniel Ecwalu (Uganda), Daniella Esua (Nigeria), Polani Fourie (South Africa), Mehluli Hikwa (Zimbabwe), Benjamin Johnson (South Africa), Njata Joseph (Rwanda), Andrew Kaggwa (Uganda), Joel Kapungwe (Zambia) Godisamang Khunou (South Africa), Trent Kok (South Africa), Makundi Lambani (South Africa), Sheetal Megan (South Africa), Theoline Maphutha (South Africa), Francisca Meyer (South Africa), Ali Mwangola (Kenya), Samantha Nell (South Africa), Simphiwe Ngcobo (South Africa), John Nyoka (South Africa), Roselidah Obala (Kenya), Agbor Obed (Cameroon), Temotope Ogun (Nigeria), Olawale Oluwadahunsi (Nigeria), Kennedy Omoro (Kenya),Osei Owusu Banahene (Ghana), Davashni Rajoo (South Africa), Charne Simpson (South Africa), Samson Ssenkaaba (Unganda), Tendai Charles Tshuma (South Africa), Amy Van Den Houten (South Africa), Mark Wambui (Kenya).

Presented under the theme Start Motion, Talents Durban aims to boost the already rising flow of current filmmaking in Africa, and to encourage filmmakers on the continent to share their stories through their own cultured lense. Participants interact with over 600 delegates of DIFF and Durban FilmMart, the co-production and finance forum which takes place from July 17 to 20 at the festival. Selected participants get to be part of numerous project-oriented, hands on skills development programs. Practical development programmes within Talents Durban include Talent Press, Script Station and Doc Station.

Script station is a script development programme for short films which pairs four writers with script editors who assist in clarifying story and getting to an advanced draft of their script. Our participants this year are John Nyoka, Mark Wambui, Quwakemi Adesoye and Polani Fourie. The mentors for the programme are Tracey Dearham-Rainers and Karima Effendi.

Talent Press is presented in cooperation with Fipresci, an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world which lobbies for the promotion and development of film culture. The programme invites four critics to cover the films and events of the Durban International Film festival for online and print publication. Talent press has four participants and they are Andrew Kaggwa, Oluwale Oluwadahunsi, Isabella Akinseye and Kennedy Omoro. They will be mentored by film writers/reviewers Sarah Dawson, Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, Debashine Thangevelo and Shaibu Hussein.

DOC station selects three documentary projects in development for coaching and mentoring towards participation in a public pitch at the DFM’s pitching forum, The African Pitch. Participants are given mentoring prior to the pitching and during preparations at the festival. Doc Station participants are Bentley Brown, Sheetal Megan and Tendayi Tshuma and the producer mentor is Odette Geldenhuys. They will receive additional mentorship from Andy Jones, Jihan El Tahri and Khalo Matabane.

Talents Durban is supported by the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission, Goethe Institute SA, German Embassy in South Africa and Gauteng Film Commission.

The 36th Durban International Film Festival is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (a special project of the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the College of Humanities, Cheryl Potgieter).

For more information about Talents Durban at the DIFF go to www.durbanfilmfest.co.za, or call Sandile Gumede on (031) 260 3586.