“While this was Discovery’s first category in the Jozi Film Festival, we were thrilled with the quality and diversity of entries that we received,” says Dilek Doyran, VP of commercial development and country manager of Africa and the Mediterranean. “Our hope was to find films that captured the ethos of curiosity and celebrated the uniqueness that the African continent has to offer and, with films from Namibia, Swaziland, South Africa and Uganda, we are confident the shortlist represents this. We look forward to broadcasting the Top 10 films on Discovery Channel and showcasing the many different ways of celebrating Africanism.”
Broadcasting began on 31 July and will continue throughout August on Discovery Channel and it will be up to viewers to decide which film should be chosen as the overall winner. That filmmaker wins a cash prize of $5,000 from Discovery Channel to go towards the next filming project.
Each film will be broadcast on Discovery Channel four times throughout the voting period. Voting is now open on the website and closes at 10am on Monday, 28 August. The winning filmmaker will be flown to Johannesburg to receive the prize at the Jozi Film Festival awards ceremony on Sunday, 24 September 2017.