Everything you need to know about the CT International Film Market and Festival

Cape Town – The inaugural Cape Town International Film Market and Festival (CTIFM&F) takes place from 12–21 October at the V&A Waterfront. 

The festival will be a celebration of film from across the world, with films from over 50 countries being featured in competition. 

Categories of films shown include features, documentaries and short films, many of which are award-winning and critical favourites at several of the world’s major film festivals.

The film selection

Selected films for this year’s inaugural CTIFM & F will include the extraordinary work by Fin Manjoo (Woodwind), John Warner (indoda), Ferdinand van Zyl (The Recce) and Andre Odendaal (Gat in die Muur). 

SHORT FILMS

A strong component of this year’s festival is the short film category, that includes fascinating work by young South African directors such as Liana Hassim (Gracie), Jesse Brown (Post) and Devon Delmar (Under the Static).  

With a total of 641 short-films from 60 countries submitted for entry, the short film competition will include 44 short films that deal with relevant subjects as seen by young filmmakers today.

NORDIC FOCUS

The films from the Nordic focus includes magnificent coming-of-age films such as Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson’s Heartstone, as well as Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Sparrows.

The Icelandic New Wave is further represented by Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain, a compassionate portrait of a misfit named Fusi, who is a 43-year-old man who still lives with his mother. 

Nils-Erik Ekblom’s Screwed is a Finnish drama film, where Miku and Elias find themselves and each other during a summer in the Finnish countryside. And then there is an outstanding film by Estonian director Janno Jürgens, They Say Tomatoes Love Rock Music.

PANORAMA 360

The Panorama 360 (World Cinema focus of the festival) provides South African audiences with a great opportunity to view some international film highlights of the past few years. Diana Galimzyanova’s gorgeous The Lightest Darkness has been labelled as the first ever female-directed Russian film noir. 

Dmitriy Meskhiev’s Battalion, that has won 18 international awards, is the story of the 1st Russian Women's Battalion of Death, formed as part of an ill-conceived propaganda ploy by the Russian Provisional Government in late May of 1917. 

Kivanç Sezer’s My Father's Wings is set against the backdrop of construction activity promising to fill in the empty spaces of the urban landscape with entirely new neighbourhoods. This amazing self-assured debut contemplates the dignity of the individual within the context of modern Turkish society and should not be missed. 

Bakyt Mukul’s visually stunning A Father's Will has already won several awards at major film festivals such as Montreal and Bengaluru. Kyrgyzstan presented the film as the country's submission in the Best Foreign-Language film category of the Academy Awards. The story is about Azat, a man who returns to Kyrgyzstan after living in the United States for 15 years to implement his recently deceased father's will. Marjan Gavrilovski’s Horse Riders is a story that relies on the human happiness reflected trough three homeless young people.

Apart from the brilliant Heartstone, as well as A Moment in the Reeds, several other cutting-edge features will be screened: The First Girl I Loved, Boulevard Voltaire, Bride of Frankie, Centre of My World, Johnathan and LOEV, one of the first gay films from India.

TWO UNIQUE FILMS

Reginald Hudlin’s Marshall will premiere at the festival. The films is about a young Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, as he battles through one of his career-defining cases.

The extraordinary documentary, Notes on Blindness, that has been described as a moving, intimate documentary, a triumph of sound and image, and a poetic examination of love, loss, memory and marriage.

Couch Conversation Series

The CTIFM&F Couch Conversation Series taking place from 17-20 October will be a first of its kind for the South African film festival and market landscape.

In this informal space guests will get to chat to some of the biggest names in the industry’s different disciplines, in an intimate, no frills fashion - as if we were on the couch at each other's homes.

Just some of the well-known and respected industry leaders that will be taking part are:

Sharlto Copley, Academy Award®-winning producer Aron Warner, Mike Auret the Managing Director of Spier Films and Todd Brown, Canada’s well known and respected expert. 

Ticket Prices

VIP passes (includes everything)
R6000

Movie and Market Pass
12 – 21 October – R2500

4 day Market/Exhibitors Pass
18 – 21 October - R750

4 day Market Pass with any workshops and classes
R1500

Evening Events by invite only

10 days Movie Pass
R2125 – all movies on any day

1 day Movie Pass
R250 – All movies on that day

1 day Market Pass
R250