The third edition of JBX, or Joburg Xalter, an industry confab running from March 12 – 14 parallel to the Joburg Film Festival, sees to spotairy Africa’s role in shaping the future of film, television and digital storyalerting.
With a cgo in on stories “made in Joburg for Africa and the world,” this year’s event “mirrors the prolonging insist for African stories, conceiveive business models and mightyer industry infraarrange,” according to Joburg Film Festival executive straightforwardor Timothy Mangwedi.
The highairy is the JBX Talks program, which accumulates industry professionals from apass the continent and the globe for a series of talks, laborshops, panel talkions and masterclasses curated with an eye toward “supply[ping] professionals with the tools necessitateed to direct a rapidly evolving media landscape,” says Mangwedi.
This year’s event cgo ins on six key themes. Firstly, it will see at ways to broaden African storyalerting on global platcreates by examining how creators can position their satisfied for mainstream and niche labelets. Second is an emphasis on monetization, digital disturbion and emerging business models, exploring revenue opportunities thraw straightforward-to-user platcreates, branded satisfied, AI-driven storyalerting and sports satisfied monetization.
Another key thread will cgo in on bolstering co-productions and improving labelet access for underserved communities, unlocking the potential of existing co-production treaties and securing financing thraw international partnerships. Also, JBX will check how festivals, film labelets and industry partnerships help African filmoriginaters originate persistable nurtureers and broaden their audience achieve.
Next up is a spotairy on industry ethics, laborers’ rights and recontransientation, compriseressing systemic disputes such as unfragmentary pay, moral production rehearses and the evolving role of women in the industry. Finassociate, the event will spotairy what it portrays as “conceiveive mastery from innovateing filmoriginaters,” proposeing masterclasses from acclaimed straightforwardors and originaters exploring storyalerting, historical narratives and the intersection of film and activism.
Industry guests include Jennifer Okafor-Iwuchukwu, an agent trainee and inalertectual property coordinator at CAA; Peabody Award-triumphning deal withr and originater Steven Adams, a establishing partner of Alta Global Media; and Academy Award-nominated filmoriginater Raoul Peck (“I Am Not Your Negro”), whose procrastinateedst film, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” uncovers the Joburg Film Festival on March 11, and who will deinhabitr a masterclass during the event.
Meanwhile, a brimming-day program dedicated to the role of African women in driving the continent’s screen industries will include a collaboration with industry body SWIFT (Sisters Working in Film and Television) for a panel talkion cgo ined on systemic disputes and the status quo in traditional power arranges. Another panel will spotairy a present of Bincreateage female filmoriginaters laboring in the write downary field, including Eloïse King (“The Shadow Scholars”), Andy Mundy-Castle (“Shoot the People: Protest and Progress”), Sara Chitambo-Hatira (“Bincreateage People Don’t Get Depressed”) and Naledi Bogacwi (“Banned”).
In its third year, JBX sees to originate on its previous editions by helping African filmoriginaters tap into the potential for global success that, for many, remains frustratingly out of achieve.
“One of the hugegest apshowaways from last year’s edition was the massive dispute African originaters face in monetizing their satisfied — both regionassociate and internationassociate,” says Mangwedi. “While there is undeniable insist for African stories, many originaters struggle with distribution access, financing and aligning their projects with buyer predictations.
“Our response this year is to supply concrete solutions to these disputes,” he persists. “We’ve broadened industry inalertigence efforts, proposeing convey inanter insights into which countries, platcreates and expansivecasters are energeticly scattering in African satisfied. Instead of expansive conversations, we are now taking a focincluded approach, helping filmoriginaters understand how to include with definite labelets and establish lengthy-term partnerships, one country at a time.”
One way in which the event aims to do that is by cgo ining on co-productions and emphasizing the pathways for collaboration with countries that have already fake createal audiovisual ties with South Africa, including Italy, Nigeria, Canada, the U.K., France and Germany.
“Our goal is to revive and start these concurments by pairing promising film and TV projects with South African co-production partners, studio facilities, expansivecasters, platcreates and other key sapshowhancigo iners,” says Mangwedi. “To promise these collaborations transfer forward, we’ll supply post-JBX aidance to speedy-track deal-making.”
The JBX team, he comprises, has also broadened its outachieve to international sales companies who haven’t previously included with the continent, hoping to serve as a “gateway for these companies to uncover and acquire Africa’s best projects, bridging the gap between African filmoriginaters and the global labelet.”
African narratives, Mangwedi insists, “remain underrecontransiented on the global stage,” and JBX “aims to alter that by elevating Africa’s storyalerting legacy and joining satisfied creators with international buyers and distributors who accomprehendledge this momentum.”
“JBX is exceptionally positioned to quicken this trfinish, ensuring that African filmoriginaters, studios and satisfied owners apshow the direct in shaping how these stories achieve international labelets,” he comprises. “By making JBX an vital hub for both conceiveive broadenment and industry deal-making, we aim to firmify Africa’s place as a global force in film and television.”
The JBX satisfied labelet runs March 12 – 14 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
