Joburg Film Festival Head on Celebrating ‘Unseen Hands Behind Filmmaking,’ Growing Next Generation of South African Moviegoers

The Joburg Film Festival kicks off its eighth edition March 3 in the heart of South Africa’s entertainment industry, with an event that organizers say will celebrate the “unseen hands behind filmmaking.” 

Paying tribute to the many below-the-lines artisans who help bring films to the big screen, the festival will pay homage to the “cinematographers, editors, line producers, casting directors, financiers and others who shape what audiences see,” according to festival executive director Timothy Mangwedi.

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“I wanted the program to ‘feel the frame,’ examining both craft and the systems that make storytelling possible,” Mangwedi tells Variety. “For us, as the Joburg Film Festival, one of the things we have to do to make sure we get more audiences to come to the festival is also to educate the audience. We’re examining both the craft and the system of making storytelling possible.”

The festival opens with “Laundry,” from South African director Zamo Mkhwanazi, which tells the story of a Black family running a laundromat in a whites-only area during the apartheid era. Mkhwanazi’s directorial debut premiered last year in Toronto. The festival wraps March 8 with the world premiere of “The Trek,” a western-horror from first-time director Meekaeel Adam.

Twelve feature films will be competing for Nguni Horns in the festival’s main competition. Among the highlights are “Variations on a Theme,” by South African directing duo Jason Jacobs and Devon Delmar, which scooped the Tiger Award in Rotterdam earlier this year, and “The History of Sound,” director Oliver Hermanus’ gay romance drama, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, that competed for the Palme d’Or last year in Cannes.

Also in contention is “Dreamers,” by Nigerian-born Londoner Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, a queer romance set within a British immigration center that follows two Nigerian asylum seekers who find love while battling the system. The festival will also host the African premiere of “The Dutchman,” Andre Gaines’ adaptation of the Civil Rights-era play by Amiri Baraka that stars André Holland as a Black man tempted by a destructive stranger. 

The jury is comprised of producer Cait Pansegrouw (“This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection,” “The Wound”); producer Bongiwe Selane (“Happiness Is a Four-Letter Word”); producer and director Sia Stewart (“Why Not Us: Southern Dance”); filmmaker and Septimius Awards founder Jan-Willem Breure; Berlinale curator and World Cinema Fund jury member Dorothee Wenner; and programmer Keith Shiri, founder of Africa at the Pictures.

This year promises to be the JFF’s biggest edition yet, with festival curator Nhlanhla Ndaba saying organizers received a record 770 submissions from nearly 100 countries before whittling down the final selection to 60 films.

“We curated a selection that really engages the audience emotionally,” says Ndaba. “We want them to really be in a space where they can relate to the films. And also bringing it home. As we’re inviting the audiences to not just consume the story, but to engage with it on an emotional level, we’ve selected quite a good range of South African films which then brings the narrative home. [That] makes it authentic, allows the audience to really see themselves.”

The drive to engage — and grow — local audiences is key to the mission of both the Joburg Film Festival and its parallel industry event, the Joburg Xchange, or JBX, which take place in a country whose rampant inequality has only grown in the post-apartheid era. Cinema-going culture has struggled to take hold in much of South Africa, particularly in townships and other impoverished communities, prompting the organizers to focus on building that culture in the next generation of South African moviegoers and filmmakers.

That’s why the festival has partnered with five universities around Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, offering support for student films that then have a chance to compete in the JFF. Two previous winners of the festival’s Young Voices competition, emerging talents George Temba and Ntokozo Mlaba, will share their stories during the JBX, which also offers discounted access to young industry hopefuls through its JBX Youth program.

“There are initiatives that are geared at audience development and getting audiences to participate and be a part of the festival. And also to make it as inclusive as possible,” says Ndaba. “We are bringing a number of young people to the festival from previously disadvantaged communities to participate, both at JBX Youth, and also at the screenings, so that they get a complete experience of what the Joburg Film Festival is about, and what opportunities are there in the film industry.”

The Joburg Film Festival takes place March 3 – 8.