Global Africa Hub at TIFF Market Seeks to Boost Visibility — and Deals — for African Filmmakers in Toronto: ‘It’s Our Moment’

The first-ever Toronto film market, running as part of the Toronto Film Festival, will have a robust contingent of African filmmakers, executives and industry professionals on the ground.

Producers at TIFF: The Market look to capitalize on the festival’s historically strong position as a platform for some of the continent’s most diverse and exciting talents.

Charles Tremblay, who heads up the market, says the event is “is designed to build on the festival’s legacy of creating access and opportunities for global content to be discovered and relevant topics to be explored.

“We’re excited to continue our long-standing and fruitful relationship with the African continent through a variety of market initiatives for companies and creatives,” he says. “We’re very interested in the financing, production and distribution landscape in the continent at the moment … [and] our Summit programming echoes this interest.”

Anchoring the activities will be the Global Africa Hub, a pavilion for African creatives sponsored by Canex Creations, the pan-African initiative launched by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to finance, support and promote Africa’s creative and cultural industries. The hub is presented in partnership with Nigerian private equity firm MBO Capital, South African genre powerhouse Gambit Films, Nigerian production outfit Narratives Entertainment, and leading Nigerian production and distribution company FilmOne.

Also exhibiting will be the International Salon for Audiovisual Content (SICA), a burgeoning trade fair and business hub that takes place every year in Ivory Coast.

Toronto has long been one of the international industry’s leading platforms for African cinema, and this year is proving to be no exception, with new titles from South Africa’s John Trengove (“The Smell of Apples”) and Jenna Cato Bass (“Future Tense”), as well as the latest from Nigerian mogul Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife Films (“The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives”), among the anticipated African titles set to debut.

The festival will also host the North American premiere of Nigerian directing duo Arie and Chuko Esiri’s “Clarissa,” the star-studded, Lagos-set adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” that was acquired by Neon and premiered in Cannes.

For Canex Creations CEO Osahon Akpata, the inaugural TIFF bazaar offers an opportunity for the pan-African investment platform to “create a bridge” between African filmmakers and the global industry.

“Access to markets remains a challenge [for African filmmakers],” Akpata tells Variety. “Navigating these markets is not always something that we’re well-prepared for, and it affects our ability to get good outcomes.”

One of the ways in which the TIFF partnership looks to give filmmakers a boost is through market screenings of African titles for key North American acquisition and distribution executives. “We will do as much as we can to connect them to commercial opportunities,” says Akpata.

Among the works in progress to be featured are “The Black Book 2: Old Scores,” director Editi Effiong’s sequel to his blockbuster Netflix action hit, and “I’m Coming for You,” the fiction debut of Rotterdam-winning filmmaker Cyrielle Raingou (“Le Spectre de Boko Haram”). There will also be a special buyers screening of “Muganga — The One Who Treats,” the advocacy-driven drama inspired by the true story of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Denis Mukwege, directed by Marie-Hélène Roux and co-produced by Angelina Jolie. 

Key executives will also be on hand for a TIFF market panel on new models for financing and distributing African film, including Canex Creation’s Akpata, Gobez Media producer Tamara Dawit, MBO capital executive director Adekunle Adebiyi and Janet Brown, COO of Tribeca Enterprises. In addition, EbonyLife’s Abudu will join production and distribution veteran Moses Babatope, of the Nile Media Entertainment Group, for a session on the global success of the Nigerian film industry.

Abudu is a long-time fixture at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, where “Baba Segi’s Wives” marks EbonyLife’s fifth selection. Commenting on the prospects for African filmmakers at TIFF: The Market, she pointed to a string of sold-out screenings for the film — an adaptation of Lola Shoneyin’s 2010 debut novel — as proof that audiences are clamoring for more African stories.  

“I think that gives you a clue as to the appetite for our content,” she says. “The world is beginning to appreciate us for who we are. It’s our time. It’s our moment.”