Annansi Chronicles

District 9 success and 19 Emmy nominations boost Africa as emerging TV & Film production locale

With the recently released South Africa-based filmed District 9 heating up conversations online and smashing box-office numbers Southern Africa is strongly maintaining it's role as a popular destination for Hollywood motion picture production. Not one to forgo the cost-profit benefits of filming in Africa, television networks are following suit, ramping up their hiring of crews in Southern Africa for program production. The results are a record 19 Emmy nominations for Africa-produced programs this year. I predict that the trend will continue rapidly as media companies struggle for new ways to generate revenue, and Africa nations learn to take advantage of marketing opportunities such as the upcoming 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Southern Africa is emerging as a destination for runaway TV production, as the 19 Primetime Emmy nominations for shows shot in the region prove. HBO's "Generation Kill" miniseries about U.S. troops in Baghdad filmed in South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique via Out of Africa Entertainment; Fox's "24: Redemption" shot in South Africa with Moonlighting; while "No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency," the BBC adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling novels, filmed in Botswana with Film Afrika. Approximately 90% of the cast and crew on all three productions were South African — indeed, four Emmy noms are for local crews…

And with Cape Town Film Studios scheduled to open a Hollywood-style studio on the tip of Africa early next year, the volume of TV projects coming to South Africa is only going to increase.

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