• Showmax and The Joburg Film Festival have called for pitches for 10 live-action films.
• The films selected will be screened on Showmax later this year.
• The films should be set in contemporary Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa.

The Joburg Film Festival kicked off on Tuesday this week and Showmax seized the opportunity to call for movie pitches.

The streaming platform, together with the festival, has called on African filmmakers to submit pitches for 10 live-action films.

The pitch should include a first draft of a screenplay that is set in contemporary Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa. Ideally, this should be the director’s first film and they should be a resident of the aforementioned countries.

Film pitches may be in any of the official languages of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa and the film should not run for more than 40 minutes.

Submission must be video format in English and be no longer than five minutes. The pitch must also include:

• Short bios of the writer, director and producer;
• a concise summary of the story, including the ending;
• an introduction to your lead characters;
• a discussion of your chosen genre and stylistic approach, with visual references.

“Showmax’s audience prefers local content, with seven of the ten most-streamed titles in South Africa, eight of the top 10 titles in Kenya and Nigeria, and nine of the top 10 in Ghana last year being African,” explains chief executive officer of Showmax and Connected Video at MultiChoice, Yolisa Phahle.

“Making your first film is a key turning point in any director’s career. So this brief is another way we are trying to empower local filmmakers to tell their own stories for their own communities in their own languages. We’re looking for authentic stories that will resonate with our local audiences. Popular genres like romcoms, family dramas and thrillers are always welcome,” Phahle adds.

Pitches must be submitted by 1st April 2023 at this website. The projects which are selected by Showmax will be screened on the platform to 50 countries later this year.

As Phahle points out, the most popular content on Showmax for 2022 was produced on the African continent.

The platform also today announced that taking up a month of Showmax or Showmax Mobile will give you one additional month of access for free. This deal is available to new and returning Showmax subscribers. You can take up that deal over on the Showmax website.

Perhaps one of the films pitched to Showmax features in Ryan George’s Movie Pitch series one day.