Founded in 1999, the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival (Encounters) is the premier documentary festival in Africa and one of the oldest film festivals on the continent.

Encounters takes place annually in both Cape Town and Johannesburg during the month of June, with its main objective to develop the documentary industry in South Africa, increasing production and creating an audience for the genre.

The festival actively seeks to support and promote local and African films, filmmakers, and festivals to an international market.

The festival also hosts and incorporates several events above and beyond the film screenings themselves. After world premieres (usually of the South African Films) and screenings of international guests’ films question and answer sessions are held and master classes are conducted addressing topics from industry trends to effective marketing and crowd funding. 

This year will mark the 25th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival and will begin on 22 June 2023, in Cape Town, South Africa, and offer explorations of the human condition in Africa from deep within with a collaborative respect from abroad.

This year’s line-up will include some of the most highly anticipated and talked-about local and international documentaries currently. Some of the line-up will include Dorpie, directed by Julia Jack (SA/Germany); The Other Profile, directed by Armel Hostiou (France/DRC); Free Money, directed by Lauren De Fillippo and Sam Soko (US/Kenya) as well as Beyond the Light Barrier directed by, friend of the agency, Uga Carlini (SA / Italy / Ukraine).

The 25th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival will run from 22 June 2023 – 2 July 2023.

For the full Programme and to purchase tickets visit the Encounters Website (encounters.co.za) and/or Webtickets (webtickets.co.za).

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