In a new series Africa Inc., CNN showcases how African companies are competing and thriving on the global stage. The second episode explores South Africa’s film and TV industry with host Adefemi Akinsanya meeting the crews and creatives at the South African businesses that Hollywood and the world’s biggest streaming platforms can’t make their shows without.
Cape Town Film Studios is Africa’s first custom-built, Hollywood-style studio complex. Since December 2010, it has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the South African economy while helping to create tens of thousands of jobs, turning what started as a single soundstage into one of the continent’s most lucrative production hubs. The studio is brainchild of legendary South African filmmaker Anant Singh. Singh tells Akinsanya, “The global appetite from streamers can only benefit the tens of thousands of people working here. It’s an engine not just for Cape Town but for the entire continent.”
Cape Town Film Studios has drawn some of the world’s biggest titles to the continent. To understand how that global footprint translates on the ground, Akinsanya meets film expert Dr. Liani Maardorp at the University of Cape Town, “There’s a massive amount of income that’s generated via other industries so you can just imagine if a big film production happens then the hotels benefit, the ground transport, the drivers, the shuttle companies benefit, the restaurants benefit, the catering So there’s so many other industries that also benefit. So, it’s not just direct income, it’s indirect income as well.”
Since 2004, South Africa has offered rebates of up to 30% to attract foreign film and TV productions, but tougher regulations and administrative backlogs have made those incentives harder to collect. Maardorp explains, “There are horror stories of people having to mortgage their houses to pay their crew because they haven’t received the rebate that they were absolutely bargaining on. Production is such a big driver of jobs and income in South Africa, it’s really a very important sector every rand that government spends incentivising production pays back five times So it’s worth every cent really.”
Yet, foreign capital continues to arrive. Canal+’s multibillion dollar takeover of Multichoice marks one of the largest media deals in African history. Tebogo Maila, executive director at production company Blue Ice Africa, talks about the investment, “I think with the Canal+ investment in South Africa, it really is an investment that is for African stories told by Africans and taken to a global audience. I think we should see it as an opportunity and also use it as a weapon, right, to actually have it grow in South Africa where we find our own financial means to be able to tell those stories that we’ve always wanted to tell.”
Akinsanya also goes behind the scenes of Netflix’s ‘One Piece’. Its local service partner is Film Afrika, founded in the wake of South Africa’s first democratic election, they’ve brought over 50 international productions to the country. Pepsi Pokane, Executive Producer Film Afrika Entertainment, speaks about their work, “We work a lot with the studios. So we’ve done work with Disney. We’ve done work with MGM. We’ve done Lionsgate. We’ve done work with Paramount. And then we work with the streamers. We’ve done a lot of work with Amazon, Netflix.” To see how that scale translates on the ground, line producer Marisa Sonemann-Turner takes Akinsanya inside one of ‘One Piece’s’ most heavily guarded sets.
Akinsanya then travels to Los Angeles to see how South African talent is driving the industry across the world. She meets South African filmmaker and software developer Bruce Allen who speaks about the rise of AI in TV and film, “I feel like it is not being used the way it should be as something helping artists. I feel that a lot of tasks that the AI should be helping with, it’s not helping with. It’s actually taking fun jobs and taking people’s jobs. And I’m more interested in building technology that will help artists.”
Back in Cape Town, Singh adds his thoughts on AI, “I’m not threatened by it. We should use it as an opportunity. On ‘Mandela’, we spent ten to fifteen million rand on visual effects. Today, AI could handle three-quarters of that cost. You use it to make budgets work, but the final product must still be the emotional journey only humans can make.”
Finally, Akinsanya sums up her journey, “The series and films that we enjoy around the world are made right here in Africa. From the huge studios to the crews and creatives behind the camera, South Africa is proving that Africa isn’t just a place for great storytelling, it’s a place where global entertainment is made.”
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Author: Tshegofatso Nkubone from Burson Africa on behalf of CNN.
Read More: Africa Inc. Explores South Africa’s Film and TV Industry.
The First Speech of Democratic South Africa (1994): Following the historic non-racial elections in April 1994, Nelson Mandela delivered his inaugural address as South Africa’s first democratically elected President at the Houses of Parliament in Cape Town. The event drew leaders, monarchs, and global press delegations from around the globe, symbolizing the formal rebirth of the nation on the Mother City’s parliamentary stage.
