Durban FilmMart to open with Cannes winner Ben'Imana
Durban FilmMart will open with a film screening for the first time this year.
The 17th edition of the four-day marketplace, where filmmakers pitch unfinished projects to funders and buyers, runs Oct. 9-12 in Durban, according to Variety. Previous editions ran alongside the Durban Intl. Film Festival.
The opener is “Ben’Imana” by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo. It won the Caméra d’Or, the prize for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival.
That choice is a homecoming. The project was pitched at Durban FilmMart two years ago. It then won two awards at Cannes, including the FIPRESCI prize given by international film critics.
The edition is built around the theme “Shifting Worlds, Turning Toward Ourselves.” Magdalene Reddy, director of the Durban FilmMart Institute, said the theme was inspired by Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène’s line: “Why be a sunflower and turn towards the sun? I myself am the sun.”
The programme leans into how African stories get financed. Durban FilmMart organised sessions on fairer co-production, where producers from different countries share costs and rights, in collaboration with the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs network (EAVE).
It has also lined up partnerships with EAVE, NEWF, the Cape Town Intl. Animation Festival, Documentary Africa, The StoryBoard Collective and the Ladima Foundation, covering animation, documentary and writing support.
What makes this stand out is the loop it closes. A pitch becomes a premiere. New filmmakers can see the path in one room.
The road here was bumpy. Organisers rescheduled the 17th edition to Oct. 9-12, 2026, citing significant funding challenges, according to the FilmMart site. Registration is now open, and the institute has announced the selected participants for Talents Durban 2026, its training strand for emerging talent.
