‘Rise’ Director Akin Omotoso Hatches ‘Plot to Save South Africa,’ Based on Gripping, Real-Life Account of Country’s Narrow Escape From Civil War (EXCLUSIVE)

Rafa Sales Ross Guest Contributor “Catch Me a Killer” comprises many firsts: It is a series about South Africa’s first-ever criminal profiler, the first-ever woman to occupy such a position and, now, the first-ever series entirely shot in South Africa to be in International Panorama competition at Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV festival. Abacus Media Rights(AMR), an Amcomri Entertainment company, handles world sales. Based on the eponymous book by psychologist Micki Pistorius, “Catch Me a Killer” sees “Game of Thrones” breakout Charlotte Hope in the lead role as the psychology professor turned serial killer profiler.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Indie streamer Mubi has acquired worldwide streaming rights to South African artist William Kentridge’s prestige series “Self-Portrait As a Coffee Pot” which explores how art is made in the digital age. The nine-episode series by Kentridge – who is celebrated around the world for his influential works comprising animation, installations, theater, opera and films – first previewed as a rough cut at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival.

Jennie McAlpine recently made a much-welcomed return to screens as Fiz Dobbs in Coronation Street. She left the cobbles in early 2023 as she landed a new job in Norwich where she worked at a different factory as a supervisor, upon the suggestion of serial killer Stephen Reid.

Cowbridge Road in west Cardiff plays a significant role in Manchester United's history, although you would hardly know it today.

Alejandro Monteverde, whose Sound Of Freedom was the top grossing independent film of 2023, is back in theaters this weekend with Cabrini, also from Angel Studios, in wide release. The true story of an indomitable Italian nun on a mission to aid immigrants living in misery and poverty in late 19th century New York City, stars Cristiana Dell’Anna as waif-like Francesca Cabrini. She navigates a Pope, an Archbishop, the mayor of New York and the Italian Senate among others to build a charitable empire starting with one orphanage in the immigrant slum called Five Points (last seen in Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York). Giancarlo Giannini plays Pope Leo; David Morse is Archbishop Michael Augustine Corrigan; and John Lithgow a villainous Mayor Gould — men Cabrini lectured, sparred with, cajoled and threatened to realize her life’s work. Canonized in 1946, she is the Patron Saint of Immigrants.

Millie Bobby Brown returns to Netflix fronting the latest action film, Damsel. A twisted fairy tale, the 20-year-old plays strong-willed Elodie, a heroine who must become her own knight in shining armour - rather than a damsel in distress.

From those iconic granny pants to her bumbling attempts at finding romance, Bridget Jones is one of literature’s most popular singletons. And now, Renée Zellweger is set to step back into Bridget’s shoes for a fourth instalment of the romcom movie franchise.

EXCLUSIVE: South Africa’s Showmax is to tell the unbelievable true story of a convicted murderer and rapist who faked his own death by burning in his cell and escaped prison for a year. Scroll down for a trailer.

Thinus Ferreira Guest Contributor South African rural community thriller “Snake,” the closing film of the 6th Joburg Film Festival, is a feature that wouldn’t have been made if it wasn’t for streamer money. Based on the heart-wrenching 2011 book by Tracey Farren, who also penned the screenplay, a powerless farm girl Stella, played by 9-year-old Lamiyah Barnard, becomes the only one who can stop a smarmy and mysterious interloper who arrives with a flute and dazzles everyone in a rural town, hiding his nefarious intent while going on a killing spree.

Thinus Ferreira Guest Contributor Producing successful Black female-fronted comedy in South Africa is no joke but Black female producers and writers Reabetswe Moeti-Vogt and Zoe Ramushu are determined to bring about change in front of and behind the lens. Their film “Real Estate Sisters” screened this week at the 6th Joburg Film Festival in South Africa.

Christopher Vourlias Wendy Bednarz’s “Yellow Bus,” which follows a mother’s quest for justice after suffering an unthinkable tragedy, won the prize for best film at the Joburg Film Festival during an award ceremony Saturday night at the Sandton Convention Center in Johannesburg. The film, which world premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, is set in an unnamed Arabian Gulf country and follows an Indian family that endures a tragedy when their daughter is neglected on a school bus in the sweltering desert heat.

Christopher Vourlias As South Africa marks three decades since its first democratic elections, a historic moment that dismantled the apartheid system and ushered in Black-majority rule, the country is at a crossroads. Inequality is rife. Crippling blackouts have pushed the economy to a tipping point.

Christopher Vourlias Viola Davis and Julius Tennon’s JuVee Productions, which recently wrapped the action-thriller “G20” for Amazon Studios and MRC Film in Cape Town, is planning to return to South Africa to film the true story of a young African refugee’s improbable journey to the U.S., the company’s head of film production and development, Melanie Clark, revealed this week at the Joburg Film Festival. Developing the film with a working title of “The Refugee,” Clark said Davis and Tennon’s production banner is “actively working on [it] with some local partners and are in the process of figuring out how to shoot it” in South Africa, adding that “we do plan to shoot that here.” The veteran production executive described the project as “the true story of a young Sierra Leonean boy who lost his mother in [the country’s civil war] and found himself alone, because no family would take him in any refugee camp.

Christopher Vourlias South Africa’s Known Associates, the fast-growing parent company of Johannesburg-based Known Associates Entertainment (KAE) and Cape Town-based Moonlighting Films, is launching into unscripted programming, Variety can reveal. The company has acquired a 60% stake in Zero Gravity, a production outfit founded in 2017 by former Endemol Shine Africa and Trace Studios CEO Sivan Pillay, and will team up with South African media giant Primedia to “relaunch multiple new high-end unscripted formats,” according to Pillay.

Teenage bully Mason Radcliffe has been terrorising the cobbles over the last few months on Coronation Street. Now, he’s finally about to get his comeuppance, with his threats against Liam Connor coming to light and the police learning about his role in a hit-and-run. But for Luca Toolan, who plays the villain, life couldn’t be more different.The 19-year-old is thriving on the soap after making his TV debut in September and can’t wait to see where the storyline takes him next.

A new Channel 4 show will take viewers inside the courtroom to give them a glimpse of how the British justice system works.

Christopher Vourlias Following on the heels of a successful post-pandemic reboot one year ago, the Joburg Film Festival kicks off its sixth edition on Feb. 27, with the glitzy capital of South Africa’s media and entertainment industry showcasing a selection of top talents from the host country and across the African continent.

The three-part ITV drama, Breathtaking, has been nothing short of a huge success, gripping the nation with a fictional version of what frontline life was like for NHS doctors at the height of the Covid pandemic. However, the emotional storyline is closer to the truth than most would care to believe, with the day-to-day life of Dr Rachel Clarke heavily leaned on from events that happen in her book of the same title.

They finished fifth on the Love Island All Stars final on Monday evening and now Anton Danyluk and Georgia Harrison are bidding fairwell to South Africa and heading back to the UK.

Joanne Froggatt has returned to TV screens this week, starring in the new ITV drama Breathtaking, focusing on what it was like being on the NHS frontline during the Covid-19 pandemic. The actress plays an NHS doctor who leads her team on a desperate struggle to deal with the first wave of patients, infected by the virus.