Among eight projects, six grant recipients have also been invited to participate in a year-long mentorship programme.
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Blue Ice Docs have announced the eight African film projects selected to receive $115,000 CAD in development and production grants.
The Hot Docs-Blue Ice Docs Fund, now in its 12th year, seeks to enable more African documentary filmmakers to tell their stories and contribute to the next generation of African documentary talent. Chosen from 87 applications from 22 countries, four of the selected projects will receive development grants, one will be provided with production grants, and three will get post-production grants.
In addition to the funding of eight projects from seven countries, six of the grant recipients have been invited to participate in a year-long mentorship programme. It will provide direct access to industry mentors, networking opportunities, and private filmmaker labs at Hot Docs and Durban FilmMart/Durban International Film Festival, among other African festivals and markets.
Since its establishment in 2011, the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Docs Fund has supported 100 projects from 27 countries, with $1,433,000 granted to date.
Eligible projects were considered by the Hot Docs-Blue Ice Docs Fund Committee, which included Shameela Seedat (Undercurrent Film & Television), Mayye Zayed (Cléo Media), Hot Docs Industry (Julian Carrington, Distribution Manager & Funds Programmer; and Yiqian Zhang, Manager of Funds and Labs).
Applications for the next round of disbursements will start on October 4, 2023.
The Development Grants went to A Butterfly Hug (Egypt, Sudan) by Sally Abobasha, Kady Traoré’s Born a Girl (Burkina Faso), A Dream to Fly (Egypt) by Asmaa Gamal and Wildfire (South Africa, Canada ) by Zahra Moloo.
Plagued, directed by Nicole Schafer, has been selected for Production Grant.
For Post-Production Grants, PÜLÖ (Nigeria, Italy), directed by Christina Ifubaraboye, Ager Oueslati’s You Don’t Die Two Times (Algeria) and Zion Music (Senegal) by Rama Thiaw, have been selected.
