Following the success of the 2003 edition, this year's Sithengi Feature Film Co-Production Forum (FFCF) will follow the same process as before, modeled on Cinemart, the Rotterdam Co-Production market. This year, however, the company has included a project development strand - leading up to their final call for projects prior to Sithengi 2004.
After an initial selection process, the selected projects will be sent to an international industry expert. This expert, who will be announced shortly, will be brought out to South Africa in June for a series of training and development one-on-one consultations with each successful applicant. These sessions will take place in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, during the Durban International Film Festival.
Those who are selected for the consultations will be flown to Johannesburg in July 2004 for a local pitching session with South African corporate financing bodies and government funding agencies. A final call will then be announced for all projects to be entered into the 2004 FFCF - this will be open to producers who have gone through the development strand and those who haven't, but who have projects that fulfill the necessary criteria.
The final selection of projects will be forwarded to invited international co-producers, financiers and distributors, prior to Sithengi 2004. These international industry leaders will then select the projects and producers they would like to meet with, and the Sithengi team will set up one-on-one meetings with the interested co-producers and financiers.
The objective of the FFCF is to ensure that you will be 'matched' with the correct people – those who are genuinely interested in your project with the capacity to come on board with either financing or as a co-producer. In addition, all projects selected for the 2004 FFCF, with the necessary criteria, will be packaged and entered into the following international co-production markets on behalf of the producers.
For information on registration, visit www.sithengi.co.za.
Sithengi
