South Africa: Wesgro hosted the ‘New Shared Stories’ delegation in Cape Town, recently. It was held as a proud supporter of the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS). In the event, they featured total 12 creatives, who were from France, Reunion Island and Mauritius.
Reportedly, by this Wesgro leveraged the strong connections with the French Film Industry and facilitated 148 one-on-one meetings between the delegates and Western Cape film exporters in the creative services sector.
Considering this the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) showcased their offerings and supported the structures to help in growing the industry.
The major tourist attraction out of all was the film industry, which is a critical component of the Western Cape economy and a cornerstone of South Africa’s GDP, where they contributed R161 billion.
Whereas, the audio-visual segment alone contributes 30% of the total amounting to R48.4 billion. The economic impact was even more substantial, when the factors in its influence on related sectors such as hospitality, logistics, tourism and transport were considered.
The jam-packed programme of meetings, networking and immersion included the French and Reunion Island into the South African film industry.
The Attendees were also introduced to the South African film market by IFAS, Wesgro, DTIC and IDC and went on studio visits to Atlantic Studios, Filscape, Cape Town Film Studios and New Vision.
At event, they had the opportunity to partake in a Masterclass session at AFDA, in one-on-one meetings with local producers and watch a pre-screening of ‘Pierre de Coubertin: An Olympic Life’ at Labia Theatre.
To further nurture the connections between French-South African film professionals for future co-creation, the delegation was also hosted by Wesgro, Labia and Film Afrika for networking at cocktails and dinners.
Notably, the New Shared Stories project is supported by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Institute Francais in Paris and Reunion Island with IFAS and the Alliance Francaise in Durban with the aim of stimulating the production of new collaborative film and series content between France and South Africa.