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CANNES 2021 Marché du Film

The Netherlands and South Africa launch a joint support effort, the Thuthuka Co-Development Fund

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- CANNES 2021: The new fund, announced yesterday afternoon at the Marché du Film’s Dutch pavilion, follows the two countries’ previous co-production treaty signed in 2015

The Netherlands and South Africa launch a joint support effort, the Thuthuka Co-Development Fund
(© Netherlands Film Fund)

Yesterday afternoon, the Netherlands Film Fund and the National Film and Video Foundation South Africa (NFVF) launched a new joint support effort called the Thuthuka Co-Development Fund. The announcement was made in the Dutch pavilion of Cannes’ Village International during this year’s Marché du Film (6-15 July). The initiative comes on the heels of a co-production treaty signed back in 2015 and will see the two partners building up further collaboration efforts.

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In detail, the Thuthuka Co-Development Fund will back “projects that are potentially of high cinematographic quality and of interest to cinema audiences in both countries as well as to international cinema audiences and film festivals”. A total of four projects will be supported each year, and these will be either animated or documentary features. As a rule, the annual budget of the fund amounts to €160,000: each party will contribute €80,000. Specifically, the South African agency will match the equivalent of €80,000 in rands owing to the frequent fluctuations in the country’s currency. The eligible projects will need to have a co-producer from the Netherlands and South Africa attached, and will also receive a script-editing consultant provided through matchmaking from the other country.

Commenting on the brand-new co-development fund to Screen International, the Netherlands Film Fund’s CEO, Bero Beyer, said: “The word [Thuthuka] stands for growth and development. We are trying to foster creative collaborations between the South African and Dutch film teams to develop their ideas.” Meanwhile, the NFVF’s CEO, Makhosazana Khanyile, added: “We are excited about the partnership between the Netherlands Film Fund and the NFVF. We see this as an opportunity to strengthen the treaty relationship but also to enable films from the two countries to have an opportunity to reach global audiences.”

The fund will be open for applications later this autumn, both here and here.

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