Film Industry Takes Off in Cape Town

The Film Office promotes the film industry in Cape Town, issues permits and ensures that safety and environmental standards are met.

The recent Southern African International Film and Television Market (Sithengi), held in Cape Town and attended by top filmmakers and producers from Africa and abroad, reinforced the city's status as a top filming destination.

In 1999-2000 most of the commercials came from Germany, the UK and Italy, but a large number are now coming from France and the Scandinavian countries with a few from India, Canada and the USA.

Reasons given by the Film Office for Cape Town's growing popularity as a film location are its astonishing diversity of film locations within 20 km of the city, fine weather in the summer, world-class crews, a friendly foreign exchange rate,
good film labs and studios, and Cape Town's chameleon-like ability to double for most European and American cities.

Last year the city doubled as Northern California in the movie "Second Skin" and as Los Angeles in "Styx" which is currently on the video circuit.

Significantly, the number of feature films increased from a mere one or two a few years ago to four feature films and six television films and mini-series in 2000.

Last December - usually a quiet month for commercial activity - the Film Office issued more than 400 permits for shoots, and all indications are that this trend will continue. A big upcoming film shoot due to start this month is the movie "The Piano Player", and several international commercials are due for shooting in the next few weeks.

To boost momentum in the growth of filming, the City of Cape Town has supported a number of worthwhile film-related projects including Sithengi which places Cape Town on the international film festival map, the NTVA Stone Awards that recognise and assist local talent, and Resfest, a training and development project for the industry.

Councillor Kent Morkel, the City's Executive Councillor for Economic Development, Tourism and Property Management, says Cape Town has outstripped large USA cities like Philadelphia, Seattle, Pittsburgh and Maryland for the number of shooting
days.

"It's full steam ahead. We have some of the best filming locations in the world and the infrastructure to back it up," he said. "I expect the city to further increase its market share in the future, and the Council is committed to giving its full support to this valuable industry."