How Berlinale Series Selection ‘Donkerbos’ Gives Crime Noir a Distinctly South African Twist

Another season of Love Island is set to draw to a close on 13 January, with the 2023 winter series coming to an end after a long eight weeks. Ron Hall and Lana Jenkins, Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan, Tom Clare and Samie Elishi and Tanya Manhenga and Shaq Muhammad all made it to the final, with the winning couple set to be announced live in South Africa by host Maya Jama.

Another season of Love Island is set to soon draw to a close, with the final of the winter 2023 series scheduled to air on Monday 13 January. Just four couples are left in the villa and one pairing will be crowned the winners of the series, with viewers asking to vote for either Ron Hall and Lana Jenkins, Kai Fagan and Sanam Harrinanan, Tom Clare and Samie Elishi or Tanya Manhenga and Shaq Muhammad.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Film Festival has announced a dozen projects from young filmmakers from Saudi, and the wider Arab and African region, selected for its development program, the Red Sea Lodge, in collaboration with TorinoFilmLab and sponsored by the Film AlUla film commission. The Lodge is a 10-month mentorship program that has now opened up to African works along with Saudi and Arab projects. Winners will take home a portion of the total $200,000 pot in prizes that will be awarded during the fest’s 2023 edition in December.  The selected projects from Saudi Arabia are:

Love Island’s Olivia Hawkins and her beau Maxwell Samuda are still going strong after leaving the villa. The pair said they have been together for most of the time since they left the South African villa, alongside other couple Claudia Fogarty, 28, and Keanan Brand, 24, and have even met each other's family. They also revealed that they are planning a romantic trip away together.

Jimmie Allen’s Artists:Ale Aguirre | Chihuahua, Mexico Ale infuses herself into her music and bilingual lyrics with the mariachi, norteño, banda and other sounds she heard growing up in Mexico. At the age of 16 she taught herself how to play the guitar, and is now on the way to establishing herself as an independent singer-songwriter with a loyal following she’s gained from her popular YouTube channel. Dhruv Visvanath | New Delhi, India Dhruv, a multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer-songwriter and producer, started his musical journey at the age of seven.

In a Love Island first, this year's hopefuls will get to vote for the least compatible couple while on dates, leaving the couples with the most amount of votes at risk of being dumped. As the South African villa fast approaches its finale, with host Maya Jama set to arrive on the scene next week and crown a winner, the competition is starting to heat up.

Love Island has reportedly been thrown into chaos as two islanders have been booted from the villa just days before the final in an emotional dumping.

Frank Doelger’s eco-thriller drama The Swarm has made a splash on German TV.

Thinus Ferreira Guest Contributor In the chase for scale in streaming, it’s the technology behind NBCUniversal’s Peacock that could be the saving grace for African SVOD service Showmax. Pan-African pay-TV operator MultiChoice revealed on Thursday that it will be relaunching its regional streamer Showmax with Peacock technology. NBCUniversal and the U.K.’s Sky will take a 30% share in a new company that will redevelop and overhaul Showmax for African audiences. Launched in 2015, Showmax has been feeling the intense pressure of lower-priced global streamers like Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV+ scooping up subscribers across the African market. (HBO Max is yet to launch and Paramount is still working on a Paramount+ rollout for the continent.)

Love Island fans have been left asking 'how' as they were left floored by a 'wicked plot twist'. During Wednesday night's episode (March 1), Olivia Hawkins and Maxwell Samuda were dumped from the Love Island villa.

Olivia Hawkins and her boyfriend Maxwell Samuda have been dumped from the South African Love Island villa after they were voted the least compatible. After tensions grew in recent episodes and the islanders branded Jessie Wynter “fake” with her boyfriend Will Young, the islanders were whisked away to a beach party.

Love Island 2022 winner Davide Sanclimenti has delivered a sly dig at this year's winter edition as he admitted he hasn't been "entertained" by the drama in the South African villa so far.The 27 year old star, who won the show with his now-girlfriend Ekin-Su Cülcüloğlu, 28, swiftly became one of the show's most popular contestants ever to grace screens.The Italian stallion and his Turkish delight had an almighty journey on the show, with many convinced their fiery personalities couldn't make it in the long haul. But nearly seven months after the final last summer, the couple are still going strong.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Studiocanal will stage at the London TV Screenings the international premiere of “Spinners,” an eight-part extreme sports action drama set on the mean streets of Cape Town’s Southside, that is not just a series but a sign of an industry zeitgeist. As the competition for talent grows, there’s a building drive into emerging production hubs beyond the traditional powerhouse territories in Europe led by some of its most powerful players, here France’s Canal+, Studiocanal and Federation Studios, and some of its biggest TV events, such as Series Mania.  Produced by Joachim Landau and Raphaël Rocher at Federation Studios’ Empreinte Digitale, and co-created by Landau, “Spinners” is a co-production of South Africa’s Showmax, Africa’s biggest pan-continental SVOD service available in 65 countries, and Vivendi’s Canal+, rating as both a Showmax and Canal+ Original. 

Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer is leading a thriller for South African network M-Net.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Ramsay Street is gearing up to welcome a few more familiar faces. Seven long-time characters are joining Amazon Freevee’s continuation of Australian soap “Neighbours.” The new additions include Annie Jones (as Jane Harris), Rebekah Elmaloglou (as Terese Willis), Georgie Stone (as Mackenzie Hargreaves) and Tim Kano (as Leo Tanaka). All cast members will return as series regulars. Meanwhile, those returning in guest roles are Ian Smith (as Harold Bishop), April Rose Pengilly (as Chloe Brennan) and Melissa Bell (as Lucy Robinson). They will be joined by “Neighbours” stalwarts Stefan Dennis, Alan Fletcher, Ryan Moloney and Jackie Woodburne, who were previously announced.

Series 9 of the winter Love Island series kicked off back in Jan, with Maya Jama making her presenting debut in replacement of Laura Whitmore. So far, we’ve seen plenty of drama, including Islander Jessie going off-script during the Knowing Me, Knowing You task, and viewers calling out Movie Night after the episode was not what they expected - all while the contestants bask in the sunshine of their Cape Town villa. But for many eagle-eyed fans out there, there may have been something else (or someone else, should we say) you may have recognised from a previous stint on the show.

Naman Ramachandran India’s Zee Studios and Emmay Entertainment have released the first trailer for “Mrs. Chatterjee Vs Norway,” starring Rani Mukerji. The film, directed by Ashima Chibber and written by Rahul Handa, Sameer Satija and Chibber, is based on the true story of an Indian couple whose children were taken away from them by Norwegian welfare services in 2011. Mukerji plays the titular Mrs. Chatterjee who battles with the Norwegian government to reunite with her children. The film is produced by Zee Studios and Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani and Nikkhil Advani’s Emmay Entertainment (“Bellbottom”). It is part of Zee Studios’ extensive 2023 slate. The company has a film, “Aatmapamphlet,” and series “Brown” at the ongoing Berlin Film Festival and Berlin Series Market respectively.

Berlinale Series and one of Disney+’s early big plays in Southern Europe, U.K.-Italian mafia series “The Good Mothers” walked off on Wednesday night with the Berlin Festival’s inaugural Berlinale Series Award.  A large virtue of the series is to come in at the mafia from a novel angle: a real story of women who dare to defy the Italian mob.  The title forms part of the first European slate by new Disney+ international streaming service Star. It tells how bosses at the the Calabrian mob were targeted by a female prosecutor – thanks to the collaboration of three women inside the ‘Ndrangheta organized crime clan. 

The Good Mothers, Disney+’s hard-hitting mafia drama series, has won the first ever Berlinale Series Award.

EXCLUSIVE: Members of the first ever Berlinale Series Award jury have predicted that TV awards could soon rival film at the world’s major festivals.