Over the decades, the Festival has expanded its audience and influence, yet its commitment to showcasing exceptional documentaries from across the world remains steadfast. As we look ahead to 2024, the Festival hopes to go to greater heights.
Since its inception in 1999, Encounters has offered South African film lovers a well-curated line-up of the most important documentaries globally. Encounters aims to present films that entertain, engage and inspire and achieves this with the selection of documentaries spanning a wide array of themes for varied local audiences.
The programme features award-winning and award-nominated films, ‘best of the fests’ and the most-talked-about documentaries of the year. Encounters prides itself on discovering new works by documentary masters and emerging talent from South Africa and the broader African region.
Encounters has expanded its remit of jury awards, alongside offering filmmakers extensive media exposure and providing unique opportunities to connect with audiences, both within the main cinema venues and within local townships through the Festival’s Outreach programme.
Encounters extends a warm invitation to filmmakers to submit films completed after January 2022, to celebrate 26 years of creative documentary in Africa. The programmers are looking for films that resonate with diverse audiences, encompassing themes of social justice, politics, arts and culture, technology, current affairs, personal stories, education, history, the environment and many more.
