The festival will be hosted by Afda in cinemas, theatres and studio venues in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Gqeberha.
This year's festival will showcase a record 111 productions and projects from the respective Afda campuses. These include live action short films, animation films, documentary films, telenovela pilots, theatre plays, live music performance shows and business innovation projects. This year also sees our genesis group of Creative Writing students pitch their creative writing projects to industry experts and the public at the festival, these include six short stories, two screenplays and a stage production.
"The annual Afda Graduation Festival is an important platform for our final year undergraduate and postgraduate students to showcase the final practical outcome of their qualification. This outcome is the culmination of their learning journey at Afda and finding their voice as young creatives. The content the Afda graduates create is culturally relevant and engaging content for their chosen target markets. Many meaningful industry collaborations and connections have resulted from our graduation festival in previous years, creating opportunities for Afda students as well as industry and media stakeholders alike." says Afda CEO Teresa Passchier.
"With the Afda Graduation Festival coming up, the Johannesburg writers have been pretty stoked to share their work, which was more than evident in the table readings. Everyone is trying something a little different, pushing their boundaries and breaking out of their comfort zones. And I think it's been a great success so far, things are really coming together in a lot of the writing we've seen.
"We are equally excited and apprehensive about the festival day itself, this will be our first time pitching to industry people. Some of us are already finding internships and job opportunities. I think we're all really just trying to get the ball rolling for our final push at Afda." says third year creative writing student, Kaival Pather.
At the Afda Johannesburg Graduation Festival on 25 November at 12:45pm at Cinema Nouveau in Rosebank, Afda's first Artist in Residency, Vusi Africa, known for his award-winning films Letters of Hope and Surviving Gaza, is previewing his Afda MFA documentary film Happy. The film takes us on journey through history as we revisit an event that unfolded 20 years ago when Happy Sindane took a brave step to Bronkhorstspruit Police Station, laying charges of kidnapping against the Sindanes. The film has also already been selected as the closing film for the Africa Rising International Film Festival.
All the productions and projects at the festival are assessed by industry professionals, Afda learning staff members and most importantly, the public. The graduation production constitutes 50% of the complete student assessment for the year. This is a critical aspect of the Afda learning system which encourages students to create market related and culturally relevant entertainment content.
Afda graduation productions have been hugely successful both locally and abroad on the local and international film festival circuit. These include the film Elalini which won the Best Foreign Student Film Oscar in 2006, Kanye Kanye which won over 20 best short film awards worldwide, and was a finalist for the Oscars and Cannes in 2012. The films Die Windpomp and Hollywood in my Huis were Afda student films which were later developed into feature films. Afda student films have also won nine SAFTA's in the 'Best Student Film' category.
The Afda students and staff body are looking forward to seeing you give round of applause from the edge of your seat.
