Encounters 2024 Festival Dates and Submission Call Announced

Calling All Documentary Filmmakers!

The organisers of Encounters South African International Documentary Festival, Africa’s home of documentaries, call on the filmmaking community, inviting submissions of feature-length, mid-length and short documentary films for consideration to participate at the 26th edition of the Festival, scheduled to take place from 20 – 30 June 2024. Over the decades, the Festival has consistently evolved, expanding its audience and influence, yet its commitment to showcasing exceptional documentaries from across the world remains steadfast. As we look ahead to 2024, the Festival is poised to ascend to even greater heights, continuing its legacy of excellence and innovation.

Since its inception in 1999, Encounters has offered South African film lovers a well-curated line-up of the most important documentaries globally. Encounters aims to present films that entertain, engage and inspire and achieves this with the selection of documentaries spanning a wide array of themes for varied local audiences. The programme features award-winning and award-nominated films, ‘best of the fests’ and the most-talked-about documentaries of the year. Encounters prides itself on discovering new works by documentary masters and emerging talent from South Africa and the broader African region. Encounters has expanded its remit of jury awards, alongside offering filmmakers extensive media exposure and providing unique opportunities to connect with audiences, both within the main cinema venues and within local townships through the Festival’s Outreach programme.

Encounters extends a warm invitation to filmmakers to submit films completed after January 2022, to celebrate 26 years of creative documentary in Africa. The programmers are looking for films that resonate with diverse audiences, encompassing themes of social justice, politics, arts and culture, technology, current affairs, personal stories, education, history, the environment and many more.

Submission Links:

SA/Africa Entries – https://encounterstraininganddevelopmentinstitute.cmail20…

SA/African film submissions are exempt from paying a submission fee.

International Entries – https://encounterstraininganddevelopmentinstitute.cmail20…

A nominal submission fee of USD20 is charged for International entries.

Please note, we will consider works in progress / rough cuts if your film will be ready in time for the Festival itself (20 – 30 June 2024).

The deadline for submissions is Monday 11 March 2024 (11.59PM SAST)