Animation leads Durban FilmMart expansion

Durban FilmMart (DFM) has expanded the festival’s partner programme with three new industry strands: animation; impact producing; and natural world storytelling.

The annual market connects African filmmakers with producers, funders, distributors and other industry partners. The 17th edition takes place from 9 to 12 October 2026 in Durban. Animation leads the expansion with two one-hour screenings featuring 20 films from nine countries under the banner Best of Cape Town International Animation Festival 2026: African Roots.

Saturday’s session opens with Ubuntu, an Afrofuturist animated music video centred on a community coming together through food, culture and shared purpose. The full film is available to watch on YouTube. Directed by Joel “Cyzo” Matladi and produced with Johannesburg-based Blacknative Studios, the animation connects the festival programme directly to South African production.

The first volume also includes: To The Dream; The Night of Vincent; About Sarah; One Way or Another; Pictures for Piano (1); The Black Raven; and BICI, The Story of a Bike. Sunday’s session includes science-fiction, fantasy and comedy, with titles such as Crocodile Dance; Tribe; and Bru & Boegie: Meteorite.

The new animation strand focuses on the infrastructure supporting animation, including financing, studios, audiences and intellectual property. The full festival agenda is available here.

“Animation is often talked about as if the only question is whether Africa has the talent,” says Dianne Makings, Cape Town International Animation Festival (CTIAF) director. “We know we have the talent. The bigger question is what happens next; who commissions the work, who finances it, who builds the studios, who develops the audiences and how do we create an industry that allows African creators to keep making African stories.”

Recent African animation shows both the scale already being achieved and the gaps the industry is trying to close. Cape Town-based Sunrise Animation’s David involved more than 400 local and international artists and crew across 32 countries, illustrating the production capacity that can be built around African-led projects. The movie earned about $91-million worldwide. Recognition has also come at the other end of the production spectrum: Butterfly, an Algerian animated short, was nominated for an Academy Award.

DFM sessions include:

• Innovate. Animate. Elevate.: From Cape Town Studio to Global Market – on building a real studio cluster.
• Beyond the Festival Circuit: Who Is Watching African Animation? – tracing the pipeline from commissioning to audience development.
• Too Big for Grants, Too Small for Investors: The Missing Middle – on financing the jump from small teams to scalable studios.

The animation strand features a WATA Creative Workshop for women in African animation and gaming, plus studio networking and a screening of CTIAF’s Best of 2026 selection.

Magdalene Reddy, DFM Institute director, says: “This year’s partner programme strands reflect exactly the kind of collaboration DFM exists to enable. We are always open to working with organisations who share our commitment to strengthening the African film ecosystem, and these partnerships allow us to bring specialist expertise into the DFM programme for the benefit of the filmmakers and industry professionals we serve.”

The new strands were developed with the CTIAF, a coalition of documentary impact producing organisations, and the Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers organisation (NEWF). The festival is funded by the Durban Film Office, eThekwini Municipality, Ford Foundation, the National Film and Video Foundation and International Emerging Film Talent Fund (IEFTF).Foundation and International Emerging Film Talent Fund (IEFTF).

Impact

The impact producing strand includes Impact Day, a full-day forum focused on impact producing across the filmmaking lifecycle. Participating organisations include Documentary Africa, Doc Society, Climate Story Labs Africa and the UCT Centre for Film and Media Studies.

Sessions include:

• A case study on Children of Honey, presented by Odera Onyore Nyambok II of Documentary Africa.
• An Impact Hackathon developing strategies for three documentary projects.
• Case studies on Get Reel and Murder in Paris.
• A discussion on impact financing.
• The Climate Cine-Bar, a screening and discussion session focused on films intended to drive engagement beyond the screen.

Natural world storytelling

Pragna Parsotam-Kok, NEWF executive director, says: “So many of the stories emerging from the continent remind us that nature is not separate from people. Social, environmental and climate justice intersect, conservation films explore people and place, and stories about the natural world can move between documentary, fiction and natural history.

“Now more than ever, it matters that African voices are part of global conversations about our environment, nature and wildlife. Together, we hope to invite filmmakers who may not yet see themselves as nature world storytellers, to bring their voices, craft and perspectives to the wild side; and to expand what natural world storytelling can be, who gets to shape it and how these stories are shared with the world.”

Sessions include:

• Beyond the Wild: Representing Nature and Spirituality on Screen, with Pippa Ehrlich, Zolani Mahola, Dr Gcina Mhlophe and Gogo Lindi Dlamini.
• Beyond the Wild: Getting the Shot, on wildlife cinematography with NEWF Fellows.
• Beyond the Wild: Expanding Stories About the Natural World.

Delegates can explore The NEWF Room, an immersive exhibition featuring 360° VR from Zululand to Sodwana Bay’s reefs and the multiplayer game Aquabots, alongside The Wild Side, a curated shorts programme.

* Visit the Durban FilmMart website here.

* Jason Bannier is a data analyst at World Wide Worx and deputy editor of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Bluesky at @jas2bann.