Cape Town film industry coining it

Cape Town’s film industry continues to thrive, with the city securing film and media declarations that will contribute close to R2bn to the metro.

The Western Cape’s trade and investment promotion agency, Wesgro, announced on Thursday that a total of nine film and media declarations were facilitated by its Film and Media promotion unit in the 2017-18 financial year.

In addition to this, the unit delivered advertising worth more than R33m through marketing support for the film and media industry. The spend on productions will result in the creation of close to 2,450 fulltime jobs in the province.

Cape Town has attracted Alist actors and crews in recent years. Its film industry contributes over R5bn to its domestic economy and has over the past few years created more than 35,000 jobs. Its “competitive film tariffs and user charges for filming” have ensured that it remains an attractive destination for film makers.

Wesgro called securing the film and media declarations an “outstanding achievement” and said this was due to the “efforts of a … two-woman team — headed by Monica Rorvik and supported by Lisa Mini, film and media relations officer. Both women were certified as official African film commissioners by the African Film Commissions Network in November 2017.”

Rorvik said more than $30bn is spent on production by Motion Picture Association companies globally, and the likelihood is that SA can grow its spending from those companies from $400m to $1.5bn.

“Their objective to grow the local industry is aligned to the department of economic development and tourism’s five-year film and media strategy, the Cape Town Film Studios, as well as the film and media promotion mandate from the City of Cape Town,” the agency said.

“This sector has a lot of potential … which will allow us to further develop our skills set and grow the number of jobs,” said Western Cape economic opportunities MEC Alan Winde.