The sixth edition of the Joburg Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday. While some were reflecting on our country's long journey in the three decades since the end of apartheid, filmmakers and executives taking part in the second JBX content market, were more squarely focused on the future. As Variety notes, Africa’s streaming wars and an eye toward global dealmaking highlighted how the tide has begun to shift in how the world perceives the continent.
Mayenzeke Baza of boutique global sales and distribution company AAA Entertainment, which helps finance content from Africa for global export, said that the buyers dictate the value of what gets created and while the prices paid for African content are “significantly better” than they were just a few years ago, “there’s still not big enough appetite from the buyer to create the content at the speed that we want.