Platforms for transformation
When a filmmaker in Lagos wants to connect with a producer in Nairobi, when an impact strategist in Bogotá meets with colleagues in Durban, when communities on different continents trade experiences and discuss approaches that work — these encounters are not accidental. They happen because platforms exist to make them possible.
Some platforms are technological — like the filmmart.africa digital portal linking around 1,200 film professionals across Africa. It fills the gaps that geography and a limited industry infrastructure create.
Others are structural or cultural. They include the in-person moments when Colombian and South African filmmakers sit around the same table and ask: What challenges do we share? How can we collaborate and create stronger, sustainable impact?
Colombian teams brought their audience-first impact methods; African partners shared their facilitation and film screening approaches; and together they considered how stories resonate across borders.
“To have this opportunity to spend time and have deep conversations with my colleagues at the same level, it is so important,” said Marcela Lizcano of Nodo Sur.
The East African Screen Collective (EASC) offers another kind of platform: a regional space where producers, trainers, and storytellers coordinate across countries and set their own standards for collaboration. Working alongside it, Documentary Africa (DocA) widens the circle with research, funding and mentoring. It gives filmmakers access to peers, support and opportunities that go beyond national borders.
Together, these platforms — digital, structural, and cultural — boost voices that are often sidelined, support co-creation over one-way transfer and build relationships that last well beyond a single project. They help shape an ecosystem where new kinds of stories develop and move, and where creative communities can grow, connect and thrive.
filmmart.africa: A digital platform connecting the film community
Across much of the continent, filmmakers often work at a distance — from one another, from potential partners, and from the information they need to make it in the industry. The digital portal filmmart.africa was created to bridge this separation.
Developed by the Durban FilmMart Institute (DFMI) with support from DW Akademie, this online space allows film professionals to connect, share work and follow developments across Africa’s creative communities.
“filmmart.africa has been incredibly valuable for my work as a filmmaker,” says Samke Makhoba, a Talents Durban 2024 alumna. “Its simplicity and accessibility helped me build meaningful relationships and led me to a producer now supporting my film’s completion.”
More than 1,200 users are registered on the platform to stay connected, ranging from emerging directors to experienced producers, festival organizers, sales agents and financiers. Around 110 projects are currently showcased, offering an evolving overview of what is in development or who is seeking partners.
The goal is practicality. A filmmaker can see who is doing work in a particular region, follow a project’s development or see what events are on the horizon — such as markets, workshops, labs, and screenings — to make sure they don’t miss out on opportunities. A resource bank points people to materials to hone their directing, lighting and other film-related skills. A podcast available through the portal focuses on the business of film.
FilmMart.Africa is still growing and building its user base across the continent will take time and effort. But its purpose is clear: to give filmmakers a reliable, year-round space to find one another, track work emerging across the continent and stay informed about what’s happening on the African film scene.
