Whoopi Goldberg’s ‘Sarafina!’ To Launch Videovision Entertainment’s TV Sales Division At Mip Africa
EXCLUSIVE: South Africa’s Videovision Entertainment is heading to next week’s Mip Africa event with a new TV sales division.
The unit will bring a significant number of titles from South Africa, comprising over 100 feature films and more than 10,000 hours of television programs. Videovision is one the country’s oldest and most successful production houses.
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Videovision’s CEO Anant Singh has secured a deal to represent e.tv’s daily soap House of Zwide, which the company produces. Other Videovision titles produced over the past four decades will also be included on the slate, with notable features include Sarafina!, starring Leleti Khumalo, Whoopi Goldberg and Miriam Makeba; Cry, the Beloved Country starring James Earl Jones, Richard Harris and Vusi Kunene; Red Dust starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor and directed by Tom Hooper; and Yesterday, which received South Africa’s first Academy Award nomination.
See a trailer for the slate here.
On the docs front, Videovision will be selling the likes of Countdown to Freedom and My Hunter’s Heart, co-directed by Craig Foster of My Octopus Teacher fame.
“We are thrilled to be launching a television content division at MIP Africa,” said Singh. “It is time that African content is taken seriously. For us, a television content division is a natural progression as we adapt to the changing content market. Videovision’s own library of compelling feature films and documentaries will be available for the first time. We believe that there is huge potential in the African television space for material produced on our continent, Africa.”
Singh has been making films and TV shows in South Africa for nearly four decades and is known for producing Mandela: A Long Walk to Freedom, which was directed by Justin Chadwick and stars Idris Elba as Mandela and Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela. The film premiered in Toronto in 2013 and later picked up an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe win.
Mip Africa is taking place next on September 4-6 in Cape Town.
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