Local actor Keenon Arrison and filmmaker Dian Weys are part of a global team putting together a brand new international film festival, called Film O'Clock.
The event will be showcased over five days, from 27 February to 3 March 2021.
The participating countries are Lithuania, Romania, Greece, Egypt and South Africa.
Curated by representatives from each country, the film selection will reflect the contemporary issues faced by each country, focus on the discovery of new voices, and highlight each culture’s storytelling trends.
Keenan and Dian, a filmmaker and writer from Cape Town, met through a mutual friend, David Isaacs.
Keenan first made his mark in the industry when he landed the lead in the feature film, Shirley Adams.
Dian won the kykNET Silwerskermfees Award for Best Short Film for Versnel, about two paramedics who get attacked while they treat a patient.
While at the Anonimul International Independent Film Festival in Romania, Dian met festival programmer Mirona Radu, who was developing a new type of film festival.
“Mirona had this innovative idea of having a film festival across the same time zone in different countries,” Dian explains.
“I told Keenan about the idea and he shared my excitement.
“We thought it would be great to not only show South African audiences what other local film industries were doing, but also to link South Africa’s film industry with those of the other countries and, hopefully, create professional relationships and co-production opportunities.”
Keenan, who grew up in Bonteheuwel, says: “We would also like to contribute to South Africa’s film-going culture by exposing audiences to these brilliant short and feature films.
“In turn, we can also show audiences from Romania, Egypt, Lithuania and Greece the brilliant work local filmmakers are doing.”