In 2025, the audiovisual department of the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) supported 26 projects and 109 events across South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi. IFAS’s 30th anniversary year combined youth training, heritage work, residencies and festival partnerships, with many programmes aimed at professionals while opening space for new creators. Read the full annual report here.
Youth and early career support remained a priority. The first Girls Game Jam South Africa introduced high school learners to game design through a one-day workshop and 24-hour challenge, ending with eight original games and a prize trip to Playtopia Festival for the winning team. In Soweto, the new Eyethu Franco Xchange festival, organised with the Alliance Française Soweto, began establishing a regular platform for Francophone African cinema at the historic Eyethu Heritage Hall.
Digital creation featured strongly. At the Fakâugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, IFAS and partners presented the Spaces of Culture project, including the 360° dome work Kwazisukasukela and other XR pieces developed through the EUNIC Immersive Africa programme. These screenings showed how African stories can be translated into immersive formats for domes and headsets, while also building local technical skills.
Work in Lesotho and Malawi highlighted how projects can support social dialogue. The regional Media Parity initiative, launched in Johannesburg with participants from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, brought together journalists to examine gender equality in newsrooms and media content and to share approaches to safer, more inclusive media environments. In Malawi, filmmaker Flore Vasseur returned to collaborate with activist Memory Banda following the film Bigger Than Us, using screenings and public conversations to support advocacy around girlsâ rights and education in local communities.
Residencies and career boosters continued to strengthen professional practice. The long-standing animation partnership with Gobelins in Paris, together with the Road to Annecy incubation programme, helped South African animators refine projects and connect with the Annecy International Animation Festival and market. In audio documentary, producer Naomi Grewan joined the International Sound Documentary Summer Programme at ENS Louis-LumiĂšre in Paris, adding to a growing group of South African alumni.
Throughout the year, festival collaborations brought French and Franco-African films to audiences at the Joburg Film Festival, Encounters Documentary Festival, the European Film Festival and the Joburg French Ciné Club. IFAS also supported professional missions to Cannes, FIPADOC, the Indian Ocean International Film Festival, NewImages and Annecy, ensuring that South African practitioners remained present in key international forums.
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